Air France (AF, Paris CDG) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Frédéric Gagey, has rejected claims in both the Dutch media and parliament that his airline is a millstone around the neck of the Air France-KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Group partnership.
In an open letter published in the Het Financieele Dagblad financial newspaper, Gagey said it was 'untrue' that the Dutch carrier was footing the bill for Air France-KLM's cost-cutting measures as his airline had managed to reduce costs since 2012 while cutting 7,000 jobs.
"The perception seems to be that KLM is making all the sacrifices, while Air France does nothing. I want to set the record straight," he wrote. "The idea that KLM feels all the pain and that Air France isn't doing anything is completely wrong and a blow to the whole group's 95,000 employees."
The CEO went on to state that Air France is not "a bottomless pit" and that had it not been for a crippling 14 day pilot strike in September last year which cost the airline EUR300million (USD330 million) in operating losses, Air France would have posted a profit for its latest financial year.
Earlier this year, Dutch media reacted angrily when Air France-KLM Group executives announced KLM's approximately EUR1 billion (USD1.1 billion) in annual operating profit would be pooled for group purposes rather than be reinvested in the airline.
The matter has now taken on diplomatic overtones with the French government expressing its own concerns after Dutch parliamentarians, on January 26, voted in favour of a motion stating KLM should "have control of its own cash register".
De Telegraaf reports France's Ambassador to the Netherlands, Laurent Pic, last week called the leader of the Dutch Christian Democrats, Martijn van Helvert, to discuss the issue adding that he believed they were reacting “too emotionally” to the Air France-KLM issue.
