The chief executive of Britain's Jet2.com discount airline has called French people "lazy" and said they should stop striking and get back to work.

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Philip Meeson made the remark on the company's Web site, angry over two incidents in France that delayed Jet2's flights.

The first was a strike by air traffic controllers last week, and then on Monday, when 50 protesting students were allowed to stage a sit-in protest on the runway at Chambery airport in the French Alps, Sky News.

On the Web site, Meeson used a derogatory term sometime applied to the French and said they should "get back to work."

"It seems to me that either the air traffic controllers or the students run France at the moment," he wrote.

Meeson was unapologetic for the remark.

"After all, the French call us 'les rosbifs'," he said, referring to the British love of roast beef.