PARIS, JUNE 2: Passengers and ancillary staff at France's main domestic airport south of Paris on Monday joined the outcry against 3,200 Air France pilots who halted air traffic as they began a two-week strike likely to wreck many people's travel plans for the football World Cup.Orly will be the main airport for teams and spectators as the June 10 kick-off approaches and during the month-long competition. But the pilots' union SNPL ignored the barrage of criticism, led by the former captain of the French team and World Cup organiser, Michel Platini, who called the aircrew imbeciles.Only 12 of the 140 scheduled Air France flights from Orly departed yesterday, and there was no sympathy for the strikers, who object to a proposed Å“ 50 million ($ 80 million) cut in their overall wage bill as a prelude to privatisation.Passengers pointed out that the pilots were being offered share options in compensation.``They have nothing to complain about,'' a middle-aged man said as he waited for a hired carordered by Air France because of a cancelled provincial link. ``They get as much as company chairmen.''Air France, which carries about 100,000 passengers on a normal day, expects to lose about Å“ 10 million ($ 16 million) a day during the strike.The pilots' spokesman, Christian Paris, shrugged off the unfavourable public reaction and blamed government incompetence, saying that no real attempt had been made to study the pilots' complaints.Company officials said that, despite cancelling about 80 per cent of international flights, they expected to improve services from today Tuesday.Planes and crews will be hired from other airlines.The air strike is among several potential industrial protests as the World Cup approaches. Rail workers begin a week's action today, mainly in the Mediterranean area.
