Air France has resolved difficult staff relations that led to debilitating strikes and must now reposition itself in the ultra-competitive airline industry to take advantage of its home turf, according to Ben Smith, the head of the Air France-KLM group.
"We have been fixing, addressing the most major social crisis that has been taking place in Air France by evolving contracts with our pilots, cabin attendants, with our ground staff, which has given us a lot of commercial flexibility that we didn't have in the past," Smith told AFP in an interview ahead of meetings Tuesday with investors to outline the group's strategy.
Smith, a Canadian who previously served as chief operating officer at Air Canada, took over the reins at the group last year after the previous CEO spectacularly failed to win over staff to reforms following a showdown that led to series of strikes that cost the airline an estimated 335 million euros (USD 372 million).
Since his arrival Smith has reached deals with staff on wages and other conditions to give the airline additional operational flexibility.
"I am pleased to say that we have social stability now at Air France," said Smith. "However to erase 30, 40, 50 years of mistrust, no respect, lack of transparency, lack of confidentiality does take time."
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