France

Paris airport authorities said Monday that airlines have limited the damage of an aviation workers’ strike by rescheduling flights in advance. Aviation unions called the strike over a law aimed at ensuring minimum service during industrial actions.

A strike by French airport security staff on Saturday led to the cancellation of all flights at Lyon and caused disruption at Paris Charles de Gaulle. The action is said to continue, affecting all flights departing from Lyon on Sunday morning.

Air France was expecting to cancel 15 per cent of flights on Monday as flight attendants entered day three of a five-day strike in protest at plans to reduce the number of crew per flight. The strike coincides with school holidays in France.

Air France grounded 20 percent of its flights on Saturday at the start of a five-day strike by flight attendants to protest plans to reduce the number of crew per flight. The strike coincides with half-term school holidays in France.

Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, CEO of Air France-KLM stepped down on Monday, according to a company statement, as the company reported a first quarter net loss of €197 million.

French actor Gerard Depardieu urinated in the aisle of a taxiing Air France plane on Tuesday, a spokesperson has confirmed. A fellow passenger told Europe 1 radio that the acclaimed actor was visibly drunk.

The latest report by the French aviation authority investigating the Air France Rio-Paris flight crash, made public Friday, said that pilots ignored stall warnings and failed to follow textbook procedures due to a lack of training.

Flights from Algeria are set to resume on Friday morning after Air Algérie cabin crews ended a four-day strike over pay that left thousands of Algerian expatriates stranded in French airports.

The ZEHST will fly at an altitude of 32km and take just 2.5 hours to get from Paris to Tokyo. But Concorde's successor is still only on the drawing board, and even if the project is successful, it will not take passengers until 2050.

The annual Paris Air Show opens on Monday when the world's oldest and largest display of cutting-edge aircraft will feature a solar plane, biofuel jet engines and other new, environmentally friendly models.