AOM-Air Liberté: numerous lay-offs are planned

If at the end of the exceptional works council, Marc Rochet, CEO, didn't announce any figure, the unions expect between 1000 and 1500 the number of lay-offs planned.

The restructuring plan which aims to decrease the activity by 25% and which will shed from 1000 up to 1500 jobs at AOM and Air Liberté (5500 jobs in total for both French airline companies): it is the major fact which arose on Monday from the exceptional meeting of the works council of both companies (see article 'AOM-Air Liberté: a capital day'). If the CEO Marc Rochet didn't confirm these figures announced by the unions, the interview he gave to the BFM radio at the end of the evening lead to guess, however, massive lay-offs which could be absorbed by a labour market still active in the airline (in particular Air France, Marc Rochet underlined, should recruit some 4000 people within a year).The supervision council which was held in the morning, as the meeting of the works council in the afternoon, enabled Marc Rochet to petition the commercial court in Evry, in order to obtain the nomination of a conciliator of justice. This procedure should enable both companies which operated their commercial merger and now fly under the same identification number to continue their activity waiting for one or several rescuers. However, nothing leaked out concerning this or these potential rescuers.Two other meetings are now expected. The first Thursday: an ordinary works council which will deal with the gathering of two different populations of both companies of origin and the reintegration of sales representatives transferred in the external structure ACMF. The second, more important, on April 25th, is when SAirGroup has to decide the destiny of both French companies. These companies should have formed with Air Littoral the second French airline group and that the Swiss group, in a real collapse, decided to give up.