Air France President Resigns

PARIS — Air France President Bernard Attali resigned Sunday after the nation’s transport minister rescinded an austerity plan that caused workers to strike the state-owned carrier and disrupt operations at the nation’s major airports last week.

Transport Minister Bernard Bosson said on French television station TF1 that the government would retract the cost-cutting proposal, which includes laying off 4,000 airline employees.

In a statement, Attali said he resigned because he considered the austerity plan “indispensable to the survival of the airline.”

No replacement was named for Attali, and the strike, which entered its seventh day Sunday, continued to disrupt Air France operations.

The carrier was forced to cancel hundreds of flights Sunday. Officials said there were only three Air France flights out of 451 scheduled at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport, the airline’s main base. Air France had just seven takeoffs from its secondary base at Orly airport near Paris, mostly flights to North Africa, which have been hard-hit by the strike.

Twelve intercontinental Air France flights were rescheduled for takeoff from other airports, and their passengers were bused or taken by train to Brussels, Beauvais, Lille and Nantes.

Employees of the French airport authority are due to halt work for 24 hours on Tuesday. This means flights by foreign companies would probably then also be paralyzed by lack of baggage handlers, fuel pump attendants and other technicians.

Flights in and out of Paris by foreign airlines were not affected Sunday.