PARIS: Air France scrapped more than half its flights on Wednesday as pilots extended a strike into a third day, defying Prime Minister Manuel Valls who urged them to stop their “incomprehensible” industrial action.

Pilots have walked off the job in protest at the airline’s plans to expand its low-cost leisure subsidiary Transavia France, whose pilots are cheaper to employ.

Unions fear the company will seek to cut costs by running more low-cost Transavia flights at the expense of Air France operations.

An Air France source said that the hourly cost of employing a Transavia France pilot was some 40 per cent less than a pilot at the senior group.

Published in Dawn, September 18th , 2014