Air France-KLM's French unit said Tuesday that a consultation period to reach a deal with workers striking over pay would run from April 26 until May 4, as the airline seeks to end a strike estimated to have cost it some E300m. Air France’s pay offer of a 7% wage increase over 4 years has not received majority backing from the unions, and the airline’s chairman Jean-Marc Janaillac has said it would be hard for him to stay if the pay talks failed. The Air France strikes have coincided with strikes from workers at the SNCF state rail firm protesting against government plans to reform the SNCF, causing widespread travel disruption in France over the last month.<br/>
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The scandal at the embattled Korean Air has spread into an investigation by the nation’s antitrust watchdog into the group’s alleged unfair business practices. It is the latest line of investigations by the authorities sparked by allegations that Cho Hyun-min, a senior VP at the airline, threw water in an advertising agency employee’s face at a business meeting. “We started an investigation (into Korean Air) on Friday,” the Fair Trade Commission said Tuesday. “A total of 30 investigators are currently on site looking into charges related to transit duties of in-flight goods and the owner family’s making unfair profits.” Making unfair profits refers to when a company trades with its owner family or an affiliate owned by the owner family at a lower price or awards contracts solely to the affiliate, according to the FTC. On the same day that the FTC launched its investigation, the Seoul police began an investigation into Lee Myung-hee, the wife of Chairman Cho. The Seoul police said it had received complaints that she frequently verbally and physically abused employees. <br/>