De Juniac will take up his new role on August 1, replacing Tony Tyler who is retiring.

“I would like to thank all those at Air France-KLM who for almost five years now have been fully committed to achieving together our recovery and restoring the conditions for growth. Working for Air France-KLM is a source of great pride," he said.

"I will continue to fulfil my responsibilities until I hand over to my successor at the end of July, and I will continue to defend air transport and all airlines – including Air France-KLM – in my new role."

De Juniac’s time at the airline group has been turbulent. The carrier has cut costs in a bid to improve the financial performance but on occasions this brought the management into conflict with workers.

Last October striking staff vented their anger by forcing their way into a meeting between senior management before ripping the shirts from the backs of some of the executives.

In its most recent set of annual results the company reported a pre-tax profit of €200 million for 2015 – up from €22 million in the prior period.