Air France workers entered the third day of a four-day walkout, causing the airline to cancel a third of its long-haul flights through Thursday, 9 February. One quarter of short-haul flights are expected to be canceled on this day as well.

Roughly half of Air France pilots, along with cabin and ground crew, have walked out in protest over government plans to require unions to provide a two-day notice of any work action. Currently, striking airline workers do not need to give any advance notice. Air France operates nearly 1800 flights a day and the airline would lose 30 million euros per day if it were to ground all of its flights.

Air France is advising passengers to delay any travel plans until after the strike action. "We highly advise you to postpone your journey until after February 10" the airline states on its web site. For affected passengers, there is little recourse other than a refund when it comes to compensation. Strikes are not a liability for airlines when it comes to EU passenger protections but most airlines will make options available to passengers to minimize cost and inconvenience. Air France has posted recommendations for passengers on its web site. Among the actions passengers can take are:

• postponing travel through 29 February with no change fee for the same cabin class
• delaying travel until 1 March through 23 April with no charge as long as the same fare is available, otherwise the difference must be paid
• changing origin or destination cities, or postponing travel until after 23 April for a credit voucher good for one year on Air France and KLM as long as this is done before 29 April
• requesting a refund for any unused portion of a ticket in the event of a cancellation or a delay exceeding 5 hours

For any refunds, Air France is asking that customers contact the office or travel agent that sold them their tickets if not purchased directly with Air France. The airline is also asking customers to update their contact information as they are notifying affected passengers of any flight irregularities primarily via text and email.