Air
France has denied that plans to expand its Transavia low-cost airline have been
dropped following a 10-day strike by its pilots.
The
country's transport secretary, Alain Vidalies, had told RMC radio that
"the Transavia Europe project has been abandoned by management".
But
Air France said the announcement was "premature", and that it had
only proposed to suspend the scheme.
The
strike has been costing the airline up to 15m euros (£11.8m) a day.
The
dispute is over local employment terms, which can be less generous at European
hubs than at core Air France operations.
On
Tuesday, Air France said it expected to operate just
46% of its flights on
Wednesday as a result of the strike, in which over half of its pilots are
involved.
The
budget airline Transavia, owned by Air France KLM, currently operates a fleet
of 30 planes and carried 6.5 million passengers in 2013.
Air
France pilots are protesting against a transfer of jobs by the airline to its
low-cost European carrier
Air
France had been planning to expand the brand, and move some Air France jobs to
the revamped airline.
Earlier
this month, Air France announced its intention to more than double the number
of passengers carried on Transavia by 2017, and expand its operations outside
France.
On
Monday, Air France offered to freeze plans to expand the budget airline, but
the pilots' union SNPL rejected the offer, describing the move as a
"smokescreen".
Air
France's chief executive Alexandre de Juniac has said the strike is
"disastrous" for the airline.
His
warning was echoed by Mr Vidalies, who said on Sunday that the fate of Air
France was "at stake" in the dispute.
BBC
Business
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