Air France defends its safety record
Airline responds to damning book investigating recent safety lapses - on the same day that it announces a €1.56bn loss
AIR France has defended its safety record in response to a new book that describes the company as a "second-division" airline.
La Face Cachée d'Air France, by investigative journalist Fabrice Amedeo, was published yesterday - the same day that the airline revealed its biggest annual losses since the merger with KLM six years ago.
The book criticises the management culture at Air France and the way it handled two major incidents in the past decade - the Concorde crash in Paris in 2000 that killed 113 and the disappearance of the Rio-Paris flight above the Atlantic last June, which killed all 228 people onboard.
"Air France has a fleet of ultramodern planes and some of the best pilots in the world, but its safety statistics are those of a second division company," the book says.
The airline responded in a statement that its safety standards met "the most stringent requirements in the international aviation industry".
"The company conforms to all the national and international rules in place," it added.
Air France-KLM yesterday announced a net loss of €1.56bn in the year to the end of March. Passenger numbers fell 13.7% to 11.1 million.
Chief executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said it had been an "annus horribilis" for the firm.
He said there were signs of an improvement in 2010, although much depends on the Icelandic volcano, which cost the firm €260m in just a few days in April due to airspace closures.
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Photo:Flying Blue
