Air France's union fight handed to former Hollande classmate

Air France-KLM Group appointed a former schoolmate of French President Francois Hollande as its CEO, tightening ties with the political establishment and making it unlikely that the partly state-owned airline will squeeze unions for concessions as elections loom. Jean-Marc Janaillac, 63, who graduated in the same class as Hollande from France’s prestigious Ecole Nationale d’Administration, will take one of the toughest jobs in the aviation industry at the end of July. His only airline experience dates from running a now-defunct French regional carrier in the 1990s and a stint as a board member at Air France that ended in 1994. While his connections to Hollande and other top officials in France could help gain access to the corridors of power, political entanglements may also prove to be a hindrance to hard-biting reforms. Europe’s largest airline, which has seen its lead over Deutsche Lufthansa AG and British Airways parent IAG narrow in recent years, is getting squeezed by low-cost carriers and the likes of Emirates and Qatar Airways. “His biggest challenge will be accelerating the pace of restructuring, yet it’ll be very difficult ahead of an election year,” said Yan Derocles, an analyst at Oddo Securities in Paris. “He won’t want to make waves.”<br/>