New Air

Business

New Air France chiefa man of the Pacific

THE new president of Air France, Christian Blanc, comes to his job with solid South Pacific creden tials.

Appointed to run the huge, financially-pressed airline after strikers closed down the Paris airports and Air France world wide, Blanc had already shown his negotiating skills in New Cale donia.

A couple of years ago the then socialist premier Michel Rocard sent Blanc to New Caledonia to try to work out a settlement between the pro-independence Kanaks and the rest of the territory’s population.

Blanc was instrumental in reaching the Matignon Accords, which, while not totally pleasing to anyone, eased tensions in the French-controlled territory.

Rocard’s successor as premier, conservative Edouard Bahadur, called for cutbacks in Air France’s expenditures. This led to the strike, and one of its byproducts was the departure of the incumbent presi dent of Air France, and the promo tion of Blanc (who had been running Paris’ massive subway system).

The strike was successful in the sense that Bahadur backed off on his demands, leaving Blanc with a major, messy labour-management relations problem on his hands.

In the Pacific, Air France flies to Papeete, in French Polynesia, and to Noumea in New Caledonia, from such places as Sydney, Auckland and Los Angeles; Air France links with the affiliated Air Caledonie Interna tional in Noumea for regular con necting flights to Port Vila and once a-week service to Wallis.