Air France management on Friday agreed to a wage deal with a majority of its trade unions, ending months of labor unrest and 15 days of strikes that cost the company €335 million and a governance crisis. Under the terms of the agreement, employees will get a general pay increase of 2 percent retroactive to January 1, 2018, and a general pay increase of 2 percent on January 1, 2019. The agreement also includes a promise to start talks on the next pay deal in October next year.

Friday’s agreement marks a major triumph for Ben Smith, who took over as CEO of Air France-KLM last month and assumed the role of CEO of the French division only a couple of weeks ago. "I would like to thank everyone involved at Air France for the quality of our discussions over the past few weeks and for the trust that has prevailed throughout," he said. "This way of working between all parties provides Air France and the Air France-KLM Group with a new perspective going forward, and it is my hope that it will ensure the future success of our airlines."

Unions across all labor groups representing 76.4 percent of the employees who voted in the last union elections signed the agreement, the Franco-Dutch company said.

The main pilots union, SNPL, and the CGT, which represents mainly ground staff, remained notably absent from the list. The CGT said will consult its base on the deal next week. The SNPL, however, seeks a slightly different agreement, including a higher salary increase and the payment of the second 2 percent tranche on December 31 of this year rather than January 1 next year. According to French media reports, the SNPL wants to ensure that the second tranche is part of the hard-fought compensation for stagnating salaries between 2012 and 2018—and not a 2019 pay increase.

Bilateral negotiations between Air France management and SNPL representatives continue.