In a move bound to have serious repercussions in France and with Air France trade unions in particular, the maintenance wing of Air France, Air France Industrie, has announced it will outsource 100 out of the 450 technician jobs at its Croix-du-Sud Facility at Toulouse-Blagnac, to Morocco. |
| Air France Industrie, Toulouse (JMolina) |
The facility, which specializes in Airbus A320 checks, said the redundancy drive would be done under a "voluntary context" beginning 2013. The move is in line with its parent company, Air France-KLM's (AF/KL), long term drive to reduce costs and streamline the European carrier within a three year time frame, following sizeable losses for the 2011/2012 Financial Year which saw a €353million operating loss and a net loss of €809million.
Air France is to axe 5'122 jobs by the end of 2014, with 660 positions in the Aircraft Maintenance sector to go by the end of 2013.
"As part of the transformation of Air France-KLM Transform 2015, a part of the business will be outsourced to Morocco, but some will remain in Toulouse," a company director told the AFP.
In 2011, a visit by an Air France aircraft to the Aerotechnic Industries (ATI) large & medium haul aircraft maintenance facility at Casablanca's Mohammed V International
Airport - a facility that Air France itself, in 2008, helped setup with Moroccan carrier, Royal Air Maroc (AT) - sparked a massive uproar from Air France unions that was only quelled when management assured the unions that future maintenance would be done in France.