BERLIN: Lots of of Lufthansa flights have been cancelled on Thursday (Feb 12) as pilots and flight attendants went on strike at Germany’s largest airline, which has for years struggled to rein in prices at its core model.
The corporate mentioned in a press release that near 800 flights had been cancelled, disrupting the journey plans of about 100,000 passengers.
This “impacts our passengers extraordinarily harshly and disproportionately”, it mentioned, including it expects a return to its regular schedule on Friday.
German airport affiliation ADV estimated that greater than 460 flights shall be cancelled, with nearly 70,000 passengers affected.
Departure boards for Frankfurt and Munich, Lufthansa’s hubs in Germany, confirmed most flights have been cancelled for the day, together with to abroad locations.
Lufthansa earlier mentioned it will attempt to rebook passengers on its different airways or companion airways earlier than returning to its regular schedule on Friday.
The walkout, organised by pilots’ union VC and flight attendants’ union UFO, comes because the Berlinale movie competition begins within the German capital on Thursday, and politicians and navy officers collect for the Munich Safety Convention, which is able to start on Friday.
Pilots are in battle with Lufthansa’s namesake core airline and its cargo division over pensions.
Their union declared readiness to strike after a poll final yr to stress the corporate into granting extra beneficiant retirement advantages.
Talks have since resumed however have been intermittent and with out outcome. Lufthansa, which has described its core airline as a “drawback little one”, says there isn’t any monetary leeway for the calls for.
Individually, the UFO union of flight attendants known as on its members at Lufthansa’s CityLine subsidiary to strike over the deliberate shutdown of its flight operations and “the employer’s continued refusal to barter a collective social plan”.
“The simultaneous industrial motion by pilots is a coincidence, however one that’s welcome,” mentioned UFO union consultant Harry Jaeger.
“We need to annoy administration, not passengers,” he added.
