Flight crew strike: towards disruptions for the All Saints’ Day holidays

Towards disturbances in the French sky for the start of the All Saints' Day holidays? Five cabin crew unions (UNSA PNC, SNPNC, SNGAF, SNPL and UNAC), united in inter-union form, announced last weekend that they had filed a national strike notice covering a period of five consecutive days, from Saturday October 17 to Wednesday October 21.

In a press release titled “Don't touch my retirement, don't touch my retirement fund”, these organizations representing pilots, hostesses and stewards protest against the tightening of the combination of employment and retirement, which is scheduled to come into force on January 1, 2027. More concretely, they believe that this reform is “particularly punitive and unsuitable for the specificities of our professions”, highlighting “strict medical monitoring likely to lead to a premature end of career” and “an end-of-activity age […] imposed by law”.

As a reminder, from next year new rules will come into force concerning the combination of employment and retirement, included in the Social Security financing law for 2026. Before the age of 64, no person who returns to work after having liquidated their rights will be able to receive more than the amount of their retirement pension. Between 64 and 67 years old, retirees will be able to accumulate a pension and earned income, but on condition of remaining below 7,000 euros gross per year. The system will therefore only remain advantageous for those over 67.

The flight crew unions also believe that this reform endangers the CRPN, the Supplementary Pension Fund for pilots, flight attendants and stewards. They criticize in particular the government's desire to "return to the autonomy of our fund", whose "very favorable" regime (retirement at 55, high benefits, etc.) was criticized last December by the Court of Auditors, in particular the fragility of its financial balance and its governance problems. The objective of the executive being, according to the union organizations, to “cut our CRPN pension to replenish the state coffers to the detriment of our professional specificities and our purchasing power”.

The inter-union is therefore demanding that flight crews be excluded from the upcoming reform of combined employment and retirement, believing that they have so far obtained “only limited promises” from the government. “We therefore have no reliable guarantee unlike other populations who are already excluded in the law or even in the future implementing decree”, such as civil security and medical transport pilots, she adds. The unions nevertheless say they are “ready today to discuss again with the government in order to achieve our demands”. In the meantime, the threat of canceled flights looms over the start of the All Saints' Day holidays.