The strike at Air France is set to continue until Monday, as little progress has been made to resolve the dispute over pay.

The airline cancelled hundreds of flights on Friday at the start of the four-day strike.

Half its European services have been cancelled and a third of its long-haul flights.

But while the company has said it is ready to re-open talks, the unions say they are waiting for the company to make the first move.

Pay demand

The strikes, by members of six unions, were announced on Wednesday, after contract negotiations failed.

Pilots are demanding a 17% pay rise.

Flights cancelled

38% of long-haul flights 48% of medium-haul flights 30% of short-haul flights

But Air France says the demands are unrealistic, and is offering a rise of about 7%.

Chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta has pointed to rival European airlines such as Lufthansa and SAS. They granted pilots large pay increases, which have then weighed heavily on their balance sheets.

Air France was the only major European airline to report a profit in the last year.

But pilots argue that after 10 years without a pay rise, they are entitled to a substantial one.

Share of the pie

The head of the Civil Aviation Pilots' Union at Air France, Philippe Raffin, on Friday urged management to share its profits with staff.

"After more than 10 years of sacrifices to turn round the company, the least the management can do is to respect the terms of the agreement signed with us," said Mr Raffin.

But the unions want Air France to make the first move and say they have now reached "an impasse" over discussions.

Minimum disruption

A prolonged period of strike action would seriously undermine the integrity of the investment case

Morgan Stanley

The airline promised customers it would "do its utmost to minimise the inconvenience" and "deplored" the action by pilots.

Advance warning of the strikes kept queues at the airports short, although a hotline providing flight information was flooded with calls.

And the stock market was more turbulent.

Air France shares fell more than 7% on Thursday as the market digested news of the strikes, and then fell on Friday morning to an 11-month low of 10.90 euros.

Going private?

Some analysts have suggested the strikes could harm the French government's plans to privatise the airline.

It currently owns 54.4% of Air France but wants to reduce this to below 20% through a public offering on the stock market next year.

The investment bank Morgan Stanley has warned that "a prolonged period of strike action would seriously undermine the integrity of the investment case".