Air France-KLM will slash 40 percent of its French domestic flights by next year in exchange for receiving seven billion euros ($7.7 billion) in emergency coronavirus funding backed by the French state, the company's chief executive said Wednesday.
"Capacity will be reduced by 40 percent between now and 2021, with some destinations dropped," Benjamin Smith told shareholders at the airline's annual general meeting in Paris.
The French government has made any bailout contingent on profitability improvements at the airline and a reduction in its carbon emissions, which have become a key target of environmental advocates.
Smith said Air France would stop flights between cities where trains could provide a connection in less than two-and-a-half hours, or if the service did not contribute to an increase in traffic at its Paris hub, Charles de Gaulle airport.
That could spell the end of several daily flights from cities such as Bordeaux, Lyon or Nantes to Orly, the other main Paris airport, which has been closed since domestic flights ground to a halt during the coronavirus lockdown.