Finance minister assures France it will not sell stake in Air France

Paris — France has no plans for now to sell its 14% stake in Air France-KLM, finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday, pressing the group’s new CEO to focus on increasing competitiveness. Le Maire was reacting to a warning from the group's new Canadian boss, Benjamin Smith, to Air France's labour unions that the government was prepared to offload its shares and they should not rely on the state to bail them out. Smith, who took over the group last week, faces the unenviable task of having to overcome union resistance to reduce the French unit's swollen cost base while keeping increasingly frustrated Dutch staff on side. A wave of strikes at Air France this spring cost the group some €€350m and led to the ouster of Smith's predecessor. "Today the priority is to turn around Air France," Le Maire told franceinfo. "Selling off the state's stake in Air France is not part of Benjamin Smith's action plan. It is not an option on the table today." Shares in Air France KLM rose 1.6% o...