Guinea, Sierra-Leone and Nigeria over fears of the Ebola
outbreak.Cabin crew scheduled to work on some flights "have not wanted
to carry out their assignment," a spokesman for the company told AFP.
Air France serves more West Africa destinations than any other major
carrier. It has given its staff freedom to chose whether or not they
want to fly to Conakry, Freetown and Lagos after British Airways and
Emirates suspended flights to the region.Air France operates daily
flights to Guinea and Nigeria and a service three times a week to
Sierra Leone.Ebola has killed 1,229 people so far this year in west
Africa, the worst outbreak ever of the virus.
On Monday, one Air France union, SNGAF, launched a petition calling
for the "immediate end to flights to countries hit by the Ebola virus.
""We know that our jobs put us at risk, but they are measured risks.
This is completely out of control and the information is not the same
from one day to the next," said Sophie Gorins, the secretary-general
of the SNPNC, which represents cabin crew.She said that hygiene
measures implemented so far were "stop-gap" and that crew had "no idea
if we are carrying a victim or if we ourselves are carriers of the
virus.
"Flight crews for Air France can request to be withdrawn from a
scheduled flight if they believe their health or life is in "grave and
imminent danger," with the team then usually replaced by a reserve
team.In 2009, as the world fought an outbreak of swine flu, some Air
France crew refused to fly to Mexico.
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