Air France Finally Has the Go-Ahead to Fix Itself or Fail

Founded almost a century ago as a mail carrier to France’s far-flung colonies, Air France has long been an avatar of the country’s glamorous image. It has ferried diplomats and dealmakers to Paris and Hollywood starlets to the festivals in Cannes. In the 1960s it clad cabin crew in Dior. In the ’70s it introduced the Concorde, which linked Paris and New York in less than four hours.

Today the glamour is mostly gone, and Air France—suffering from toxic labor relations, bloated operating costs, and strategic blunders—is more representative of the country’s woes. Jean-Marc Janaillac, chief executive officer of Air France-KLM, the company forged from the 2004 merger of the French and Dutch flagship airlines, on May 4 said he would quit. He has faced a bitter strike that has cost the carrier more than €400 million ($480 million) since February, helping drive shares down by almost half this year. The company on May 15 cobbled together a stopgap management team, with board member Anne-Marie Couderc to serve as interim nonexecutive chairman and Chief Financial Officer Frédéric Gagey as interim CEO, the third person to lead the business in less than two years.