Air France chief agrees to step down: source

The head of Air France Jean-Cyril Spinetta is to hand over his top management post to his number two in January 2009, a source at the company told AFP on Wednesday.
"Mr Spinetta will remain chairman of Air France and Air France-KLM but he will no longer hold the executive position," handing that role to his current number two Pierre-Henri Gourgeon on January 1, said the secretary general of the airline's works committee, Francois Cabrera. Spinetta, 64, has for 11 years been the head of Air France, which formed a conglomerate with Dutch carrier KLM in 2004. Air France-KLM is the holding company that oversees the two separate airlines.