Air France pilots have finally ended their two-week strike on Sunday about the airline's plan to build low-cost operations abroad.
The protest began after announcement of plans of parent company Air France-KLM to outperform its competition and boost sales by putting up foreign airport bases for its low-cost Transavia brand.
Pilots are worried that Air France may altogether abandon Transavia's development in France and shift its attention in building Transavia bases out of the country.
They fear that the Airline may try to replace Air France pilots with Transavia's pilots who are "less expensive" and underrate their own pay and conditions.
Because of the protests, only 38 percent of Air France's flights were postponed on Sunday, and half of all flights were discontinued on Monday, amounting to losses of 10-15 million euros ($19 million) per day.
However, the pilots were pressured to return to work after being pressured and called "egotistic" by France's Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls.
"It is our duty as union representatives to know when to end a strike, when we know there will not be any progress. We are asking pilots to resume flying, knowing that tensions are inevitable, to allow for the climate to calm down," the main Air France pilot union SNPL said.
However, Air France just waited for the strike to end and resumed development of Transavia.
"This ending of the conflict reinforces the company's determination to makes its economic model evolve in order to cement its leadership," Air France said in a statement.
The airline believes that the development of the low-cost airline would help the company be more competitive in an industry where low-cost airlines are on the rise all over Europe.
Transavia would reportedly double the airline's passenger count to 20 million.
However, despite the long talks between Air France's management and the pilots, and their decision to call-off the strike, an agreement had not been reached.
