San Gottardo

Point taken. I was thinking mainly about last year's strike at AF, where travel was very difficult or actually impossible for many people. Partly because planes didn't actually leave - but partly as well because customer service points (ticket counters, call centres) were understaffed, information not available and the entire thing handled terribly by AF. So in the end, more people could have left, they were not prevented by a strike impact on their flight, but by ground staff being too overwhelmed to get anything sorted.

And service minimum doesn't apply to Air France AFAIK.

I have found that finding such information is quite difficult and when you have it it very often is unreliable or outright false.

stimpy

In my experience, voyages-sncf.com is quite accurate. And www.gares-en-mouvement.com too.

stimpy

Is that true? I don't think so, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

andre1970

It would be a redundancy, anyway .

brunos

"service minimum" is a bit of a misnomer. The main feature is that striking employees are supposed to let the company (e.g. SNCF) know if they strike ahead of time, so that SNCF can get better organized during the strike. There is no guarantee of a minimum number of trains and all employees are "allowd" to strike...

nicolas75

I have just made a call at the Le Club line.
At the time we were speaking, the - very professional - agent told me he just received information saying that 50% of the middle/long haul flights may be cancelled this week-end

JOUY31

Yes, AF expects strong disruptions to its operations this week-end, impacting both short/medium-haul flights as well as long-haul flights. The impact on long-haul flights could increase as the strike moves on beyond the first day. A provisional programme for the following day should be available at 8:00 PM the previous evening. This strike is called by the leading pilots union to protest a proposed legislation that targets flight and cabin crews in France from all carriers.

A confidential report estimates that this strike will cost AF about EUR 100 million. Not counting the costs to ADP, the subcontractants, companies and individual passengers. The unfortunate result of some MPs choosing to tinker with an issue at a time when there is no urgent need to do so.

San Gottardo

AFAIK this is about putting into national law a new ICAO rule that extends the working age of pilots to 65 years for commercial planes that are manned by two pilots. It remains at 60 years for one man operations. That rule is not binding, but it is being put into national law by more or less every state. Thus, France just does the same other countries do.

What is different is that as far as I can tell France is the only country where people go on strike against this rule (OK, if Alitalia staff weren't busy striking against their company's survival, they might be going on strike, too). In other countries like the UK or the US pilots are actually happy to fly longer.

Thus, unless I have a misunderstanding of the legal and social context, there's nothing wrong with the MPs but a lot with the pilots and their working attitude.

BTW, when the strike is due to commence? Would overnight flights leaving Friday evening abroad for an arrival into CDG on Saturday morning be affected? I presume not, but never know.

JOUY31

This is true, but the MPs knew exactly what the consequences would be, and they are quite substantial in economic terms. Making a political point, however right it may be, of this issue at this time has few or no benefits and huge costs. No one in the airline/tourism industry in France can afford this in the current economic environment. This is an extremely costly political statement.

andre1970

Good question. And since life has taught me to be cautious (not only) with AF, I just changed my Friday flight from DTW to CDG to one day earlier (tomorrow). I'd rather enjoy the "show" from my couch than in the airport...

Again, thanks everyone for all the info! ^

JOUY31

It should be fine, it is not like the SNCF strikes that start the evening before.

lascarb

National strike of the pilots in France from November 14th to 17th
Wednesday 12 November 2008 21h00 Paris local time

French airline pilots? unions have unanimously called a four-day strike from Friday 14 November at one minute past midnight to Monday 17 November at midnight, to protest against changes to the retirement age currently under discussion in the French Parliament (changing from 60 to 65)

Air France is expecting very severe disruptions to its operations and apologizes to passengers in advance for this unacceptable situation.

Air France?s normal daily flight schedule comprises 760 medium-haul flights from all its stations and 73 long-haul flights from Paris.

The schedule during the strike period is difficult to forecast as it will have to be adjusted each day. As things stand, the approximate estimation for Air France for Friday 14 November is the cancellation of half its long-haul flights from Paris and the same for medium-haul flights. More cancellations to long-haul flights are expected as the strike progresses.

The impact of the strike on the 800 or so flights operated by partner airlines Brit Air, CityJet, Régional, CCM and Airlinair should not be as great. More information about this will be given by the end of tomorrow afternoon.

Passengers who intend to continue with their trip as planned should find out whether their flight is likely to operate by consulting as from tomorrow on this site "Book on line / Flight status", which will be constantly updated with detailed flight cancellation information. A toll-free number will also be set up.

The flight schedule to be operated each day will be published the evening before at about 8 pm. Air France cannot however rule out the risk of last-minute cancellations, i.e. at the time of departure.

Air France will of course do its utmost to ensure that its passengers are transferred to other airlines, depending on space available.

NickB

Anybody knows what the expectations on domestic traffic are going to be like (I mean mainline rather than franchises)? I could not find any indication of that in the AF communique nor in the papers. Or are these lumped together under the heading "medium-haul"?

OttoMH

San Gottardo

Not certain I understand your post... you mean that the Assemblée should not legislate only because pilots threat tp be going on strike and thus inflict costs on Air France and negatively impact travelers and the overall economy?

I really hope that the députés will not surrender to such blackmail. Quite on the contrary, I see it as their responsibility to explain to the strikers what this is all about and that their action is especially harmful at this time of economic crisis. Pilots should understand that a strike which is about defending their laziness (or is there another word for refusing to work?) is completely out of place at a time when many people would be glad if they could keep their job.

Maybe I misunderstood your post and you said something else, in which case please disregard them as a reply to your post (my opinion stays the same though )

I have very little sympathy for the strikers