Protests Friday (July 3) outside Air France offices in Paris.

That as the airline looks set to shed around 7,500 jobs.

The cuts will affect about 15% of the firm's employees, including pilots, stewards and ground staff.

At least half that number is likely to entail voluntary departures and retirement plans.

But that still leaves the prospect of thousands of compulsory redundancies.

And that has sparked anger, coming just weeks after chief executive Ben Smith secured a state bailout valued at 7 billion euros - or almost 7.9 billion dollars.

Long-time staffer Valerie Raphel joined the protests:

"Yes, we have a feeling of injustice, we also have a feeling of betrayal and of complicity with the government because the state didn't impose compromises on Benjamin Smith in terms of preserving jobs in exchange for the billions of euros that have been loaned to us."

On Friday ministers called on Air France to pursue cutbacks 'responsibly', urging it to avoid forcible departures.

The airline says it has no choice but to make changes though.

Like rivals, it's been hard hit by the global slump in air travel.

It's the French half of the broader Air France-KLM group.

The Dutch government has given KLM a bailout worth 3.4 billion euros - about 3.8 billion dollars.

Friday's news caps a bad few days for airlines and their suppliers.

Plane maker Airbus said this week it would cut 15,000 jobs across Europe.

Budget airline easyJet laid off more workers, and rival Ryanair warned that thousands of jobs could be at risk.