Air France: Plans to cut 2,500 jobs next year

Air France on Wednesday confirmed its intention to cut around 2,500 jobs in 2014 as part of a wide-ranging restructuring drive that has already seen thousands take voluntary redundancy. The airline has been struggling to cope with the rise of low-cost airlines and competition from Middle Eastern and Asian carriers. A spokesman said the proposed cuts would be made without forced redundancies, saying the exact amount "will be discussed and quantified with unions this fall. It could be a little more than half of the redundancies identified in 2012." The measure is part of a major restructuring drive called Transform 2015, which has already seen more than 5,000 employees take voluntary redundancy. The news comes after the company's CGT union branch earlier Wednesday said management had broken the news to employee representatives at a works council meeting. The restructuring drive has helped parent company Air France-KLM cut huge losses although it says more cost-saving is needed. The group last week announced net losses of 793 million euros ($1.05 billion) for the first half of 2013, against wider losses of 1.27 billion euros in the first half of last year. Chief executive Alexandre de Juniac at the time welcomed improving results, but warned that further measures would be adopted to reduce costs, including staffing cuts.