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French airline Air France will not cut jobs in Alitalia takeover

Thursday, 27 March 2008

French airline Air France will not cut jobs in Alitalia takeover

French airline company Air France-KLM has said it will not be making job cuts if and when it takes over troubled firm Alitalia, and in so doing it is hoping for the support of the Italian unions.

Air France-KLM's chief executive Jean-Cyril Spinetta is reported to have promised that none of Alitalia's 2,100 staff "would be abandoned", which is a big change to what Air France-KLM had previously said when it was claimed that at least 1,600 Alitalia jobs would be lost.

Another change is that Air France-KLM has announced it will be giving up on its Alitalia takeover bid without Italian union backing, although it already has the full support of the Alitalia board.

The unions, however, have so far turned down Air France-KLM's proposal because of the matter of the job cuts, but Air France has also said that it is prepared to carry on with talks with Alitalia unions before the current 31 March deadline.

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