Air France drops 10% on the stock market after the resignation of its president

Air France is fell 10% on the stock market Monday after announcing Friday losses of 269 million euros during the first quarter of 2018. The company also had to face the resignation of Jean-Marc Janaillac, president of the group.

The resignation of the main manager of the company along with the labor tensions of the airline led to the shares of Air France - KLM to fall to 7 euros per share. The fall on the stock exchange this Monday is the highest since 2008.

The rejection by the unions of a 2% wage increase for 2018 led to the call of a third strike this month and the company announced the cancellation 15% of flights this Monday.

Unions demand an immediate rise of 3.8% as a result of cumulative inflation between 2012 and 2017. On the other hand, they also demand another 1.3% rise in October to equal the inflation estimated for 2018.

This Friday, the airline announced that 55.44% of its workers rejected their proposal, after several days in which an online consultation was operational.

Before that, the President of Air France and CEO of Air France-KLM, Jean-Marc Janaillac, resigned, as he had promised in the case his proposal did not obtain the support of the workers.

In a statement, the airline has estimated that 90% of its long-haul flights will operate without problems on Monday. On medium-haul flights to and from Paris-Charles de Gaulle, the percentage drops to 80%, while it expects to operate 87% of short-haul flights to and from Paris-Orly and the rest of the regional airports.

The strike has had an impact of more than €300m euros, as reported by the airline. However, the French government assured that it will not be responsible for the company's losses. The French Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Mairie, appealed "to reason" to striking Air France workers.

"I do not understand the current situation given Air France was on the right track," the French minister insisted. "The challenge is the survival of the company, which may disappear if it does not make the necessary competitiveness efforts," he added.

Due to this situation, the French minister already warned that the State will not take charge of the losses "of a group that does not make the efforts to be at the level of the most competitive airlines in Europe and in the world". And he assured that the French State, which only has a 14% share in the airline, "is not the only one that decides".