Franco-Dutch carrier Air France-KLM's (AFLYY.PK,AFRAF.PK) managers were forced to flee from a meeting about mass job cuts on Monday after protests by employees turned violent.
Air France's human resources manager Xavier Broseta and Pierre Plissonnier, the head of long-haul flights, were forced to flee after the violent protests by workers. Broseta's shirt was ripped off, while Plissonier emerged with his suit shredded as they tried to escape from the crowds of workers.
The violent attacks came as Air France's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Frederic Gagey was announcing details about a revamped restructuring plan to the Central Works Council, after the failure of productivity talks with its pilots last week.
The restructuring plan includes 2,900 job cuts, comprising about 300 pilots, 900 cabin crew and 1,700 ground staff. However, the board meeting was cut short by hundreds of striking workers, who stormed into the airline's headquarters in Roissy, outside Paris.
"The Group strongly condemns the physical attacks that took place on the fringes of this Works Council, which were perpetrated by particularly aggressive isolated individuals. These events do nothing to alter management's determination to pursue discussions with the unions at any point aimed at implementing the most efficient and constructive path to recovery for the Group," Air France stated.
The loss-making airline said it was forced to launch a restructuring plan of its long-haul network, as it was faced the impossibility of signing agreement that would enable the implementation of productivity measures to restore long-term profitability.
The restructuring plan comes as Air France tries to keep up with competition from low-cost airlines in Europe and long-haul carriers in the Middle East. In 2014, a two-week long strike by pilots cost the airline about 500 million euros.
Air France also said its long-haul fleet will be reduced by 14 aircraft to 93 aircraft in summer 2017. The company will make the reduction to its long-haul fleet by the accelerated retirement of the aging Airbus A340 aircraft, which will not be replaced by Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft as had been initially planned.
Air France noted that its long-haul capacity would decline by about 10 percent between 2015 and 2017. The restructuring plan includes closure of five routes and the cancellation of 35 weekly frequencies by 2017, with focus on routes where losses are highest, serving principally Asia and the Middle East.
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