The delegate minister for Industry, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, tactile, Friday, July 31, to recall that the French State will continue to support, without "no doubt" the airline, not excluding, if need a rise in the capital. The Air France-KLM group announced, Thursday, a massive loss. "There is no ambiguity, the State will be at the rendezvous because we believe that having a national airline, it is an important element of our sovereignty ", said on LCI the minister. "Yes, it is necessary to keep a national airline ", also said on CNews Economy minister Bruno Le Maire.
The Air France-KLM group has recorded a loss of € 2.6 billion in the second quarter, hit by the collapse of air traffic caused by the outbreak of coronavirus, after a loss of 1.8 billion in the first three months of the year. "The figure of which you speak, it is the one of the first semester, it is a time when you do not have receipts and you continue to pay the expenses, it is fairly mathematical, you are in the red and you are massively in the red," noted Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
France has granted 7 billion euros to the company
Asked about a possible renationalisation of the company, the minister held that this was " not the subject ". "The topic is how Air France bounces back, and we will be waiting for you and if it is necessary to go back to the capital, we'll do it. It does not exclude it, but this is not the topic of the moment ", she said.
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"The State will do everything that is necessary to preserve this national airline, the jobs that go with them, the independence that it represents," stressed Bruno Le Maire. "I believe that with the 7 billion euros that have been granted to Air France can see it coming by the end of the year. But if at one time or another, because the air traffic would not resume and if the economic situation remained difficult, Air France will be able to count on the support of the State, " assured the minister of the Economy.
France and the netherlands each have 14 % of the franco-Dutch group as the airline company Air France shape with KLM. Paris was granted in the spring of 7 billion euros of aid to Air France in the form of loans, with the netherlands doing the same for KLM to a total of 3.4 billion euros. The French company announced that it would remove 7 580 jobs by the end of 2022 and KLM up to 5 000.
