French flag carrier Air France scrapped half of its flights Monday as pilots began a strike against the company's plan to develop its low-cost subsidiary.
The company said 60 percent of its flights would be cancelled Tuesday with fears that the week-long protest -- the longest at the company since 1998 -- could spell travel mayhem across the country.
The strike sparked outrage among passengers stranded by the stoppage, with Jean-Marc Ragot arriving from Nairobi to Paris only to find his connecting flight to the eastern French city of Lyon cancelled.
"I can't return home, thanks for the joy," he complained at Charles de Gaulle airport.
"I've had it up to here with strikes in France. One always has a problem when one returns home," he said.
Air France said it had sent 65,000 text messages to passengers affected by the strike called by its main pilots' union SNPL and deployed some 7,000 extra workers to help stranded customers.
Munich-bound Carlos Gomez received such a message but turned up at Paris's main airport despite all flights to the German city being scrapped.
"I simply have to get to Munich today and I have to find a solution," he said.
At Paris's main Charles de Gaulle airport, 212 Air France flights were scheduled to be cancelled on Monday out of some 500.
But flights elsewhere were worse hit. Three out of four flights were cancelled in the southern port city of Marseille while 71 percent of Air France's services were cancelled in the eastern city of Lyon.
- 40% of flights kept Tuesday -
On Tuesday "40 percent of the flights will be maintained," Air France's director of operations Catherine Jude told a news conference.
But a pilots' union warned that eight out of 10 flights could be cancelled as the strike continued later into the week.
The company urged "customers who have booked a flight between September 15 and 22 to delay their trip, change their ticket free of charge or claim a refund."
Labour unions fear that expanding Air France's low-cost operation Transavia will lead to "jobs being outsourced" and "social dumping" with pilots being employed on local contracts.
"This is about a point of principle. We're not even talking about a rise in wages," said Jean-Louis Barber, the head of the SNPL union.
Air France boss Frederic Gagey put the daily losses from the strike at "10 to 15 million" euros ($13-$19 million) and said management was "doing everything with the social partners to try and find a way out of this situation."
Barber warned the transport situation would be even worse on Tuesday and Wednesday as the pilots who did decide to work on Monday would have to take their legally stipulated rest.
The company said: "If the strike continues beyond September 15, the flight schedule will be modified as a result. The knock-on effects will be communicated to passengers the day before they are due to leave."
Seeking to take advantage of its rival's woes, low-cost airline easyJet on Saturday laid on 1,000 extra seats on flights from Paris to the southern cities of Toulouse and Nice.