Strike threatens French holiday

Angry employees demonstrate on the runway

PARIS, France -- A walkout staged by French airline staff over proposed job cuts has continued into a second consecutive day threatening holiday weekend flights.

AOM/Air Liberte announced on Monday it will axe over 1,300 jobs in a restructuring programme aimed to clear its debts by 2004.

The airline has cancelled almost all flights from Orly airport on the outskirts of Paris, Reuters reported while operations at Nice, Toulon, Perpignan and Figari in Corsica were expected to run at 75 percent, said Reuters.

The airline intends to cut its domestic flights on routes that face fierce competition from Air France and high-speed TGV trains.

The Swissair subsidiary proposes also to drop its medium and long-haul routes -- on which they have been making a loss -- and aims to link up with Air France on some of its flight paths to cut costs.

The decision comes after a spate of redundancies by other firms in France that have enraged trade unions who say employee rights have been violated and competition within the French airline sector will suffer.

On the first day of the strike, angry workers blocked Orly's two main runways for one hour in protest against the restructuring plan.

France's civil aviation authority told Reuters it expected numerous flight delays over the extended bank holiday weekend, especially on Sunday when people start to return home.