Air France-KLM has revealed that deep cuts at the airline helped reduce its second-quarter operating losses from €145m last year to €66m.
However, the €368m cost of its restructure, which will cut the workforce by more than 5,000, pushed the net loss for the three months to the end of June up to €895m compared with €197m in the same period last year.
The airline also lost €372m on its fuel-hedging.
Unions are vehemently opposing plans to cut the workforce by 10% through voluntary measures and they have slammed the airline’s intended 20% productivity savings as "excessive".
Finance director Philippe Calavia said: "What is clear is that we don’t have a choice: the measures we proposed are meant to ensure the survival of the company and its recovery in coming years. The majority of our colleagues have understood this."
Two out of three unions representing the airline’s cabin crew have rejected the proposals to cut jobs. The pilots will vote on the plan next month.
