AF Air FranceKLM

PARIS—The management of Air France, the French arm of Air France-KLM, has outlined a plan to cut 2,900 jobs in a meeting with union representatives.

The company will encourage voluntary departures, but would fire workers if its enticement plan doesn't convince enough to leave, union representatives who attended the meeting on Monday said. The firings would be the first at Air France since the mid-1990s. The company also plans to reduce the number of long-haul flights it operates.

"The management wasn't able to explain all the plan's points as workers interrupted and the meeting was suspended until at least this afternoon," Marc Saladin, a representative of ground workers said.

Monday's meeting was set up last week after talks over a previous cost-cutting round broke down.

The conflict between Air France and its workers shows the difficulties Europe's legacy airlines face in making their operations lean and flexible enough to compete with budget airlines on short-haul flights, while maintaining market share against Gulf carriers on more expensive long-haul flights to Asia.

A spokesman for Air France declined to comment.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 05, 2015 06:35 ET (10:35 GMT)

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