Air France-KLM profit falls after pilots strike as cargo job loss rumours circulate

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There’s something of a storm raging in the Dutch press. As Air France-KLM announced its third-quarter results, which weren’t good – operating profit fell 61% – the Dutch media were reporting that KLM plans 7,500 job cuts, many of which were said to be cargo staff at Schiphol. The press claims that the jobs are to be outsourced. But AF-KLM has vehemently denied it. Claiming the story had been “pulled out of thin air,” the group said it could not “let circulate pure speculation in the Dutch media, more especially false information and false figures”.  However, it is expected that new CEO Pieter Elbers is to reorganise the group significantly, after the departure of Camiel Eurlings (“a man whose ego was too big to fit into the building,” according to one source.) Meanwhile, another source indicates that the group had a board meeting yesterday at which it planned to discuss the possibility of splitting the airline into two again. Watch this space…