(Reuters) -Airline KLM will lose Air France and Delta as customers for its ground services at Amsterdam Schiphol airport after weeks of strikes by its ground crew, the Dutch arm of THE Air France-KLM group said on Monday.
The airlines have told KLM they are looking for an alternative ground handling partner at Schiphol, one of Europe’s busiest airports, it said.
“This decision has immediate operational implications for KLM, particularly for the ground services department,” KLM said in a statement.
“The financial and employment-related consequences of this decision are currently being assessed.”
Delta and Air France did not reply to requests for comment.
Large parts of KLM’s Amsterdam ground crew have staged several strikes in recent weeks to demand higher wages and better working conditions, leading to hundreds of cancellations.
“This has played a large role in the decision by Delta and Air France,” KLM spokesperson Anoesjka Aspeslagh said.
“They have incurred millions of euros in damages and had to let down many of their customers.”
But labour union CNV said the decision by KLM’s partners was unrelated to the strike and would not change the ground crew’s resolve for action.
“This is the start of their negotiations,” CNV union spokesman Souleiman Amallah said, referring to the airlines involved.
Later on Monday KLM announced that the two main unions, FNV and CNV, had called off the strike they had planned for Wednesday and that the parties would negotiate “to resolve the current impasse”.
The three parties have given themselves until November 1 to reach a deal.
KLM this month struck a deal with several unions, but has been unable to reach agreement with FNV or CNV.
A Dutch court said on Monday that strike would be allowed only if the unions guaranteed that the flights of KLM’s international partners would be unaffected.
KLM ground services handle 17 daily incoming and outgoing Delta flights and 12 from Air France among the 380 daily flights it manages in total.
(Reporting by Alban Kacher and Bart MeijerEditing by David Goodman and Barbara Lewis)
