(CNN) — More than 1,000 Lufthansa flights have been canceled so far due to strike action this week, affecting more than 130,000 passengers.
The German airline announced yesterday that it will cancel almost all of its German-based flights in Germany on Wednesday.
Given that the ground staff strike by the Ver.di union will have a “major operational impact in the middle of the peak travel season”, the airline said it “has to cancel almost the entire flight schedule at its Frankfurt and Munich hubs for Wednesday.”
With the summer holiday season underway, the airline said it was already working under great pressure to restore flight schedules for this weekend, following previous strikes. Wednesday’s strike could still lead to individual flight cancellations or delays on Thursday and Friday, Lufthansa warned.
A total of 678 flights will be canceled at Frankfurt airport, 32 of them on Tuesday and 646 on Wednesday, according to Lufthansa. Approximately 92,000 passengers will be affected.
A total of 345 flights are expected to be canceled in central Munich, including 15 on Tuesday and 330 on Wednesday. Approximately 42,000 passengers will be affected, Lufthansa said.
The cancellations include some international flights from Bangkok, Singapore, New York, Los Angeles, Johannesburg and New Delhi.
Lufthansa, which is Germany’s main carrier, added that the capacity to rebook passengers affected by cancellations was very limited.
The Ver.di union is calling for a 9.5 percent wage increase for Lufthansa’s ground staff, with a minimum increase of 350 euros ($368) a month for 12 months. Staff are overstretched due to significant staff shortages, high inflation and a three-year pay freeze, the union said.
Around 20,000 workers were invited to take part in the Ver.di strike, including ground staff, counter staff and flight technicians.
Michael Nigemann, chief human resources and labor director at Deutsche Lufthansa AG, told reporters on Tuesday that the strikes were “causing enormous damage.”
Lufthansa had offered “very significant wage increases over the next 12 months”, he said, adding that strike action was “simply not proportionate anymore”.
Lufthansa’s head of media relations, Martin Leutke, told reporters on Wednesday that “a mass strike at the back of customers is not understandable and unjustified” after going through two rounds of negotiations with the company.
He said the company was trying to book passengers on the best possible alternative routes and advised customers without confirmed flights on Wednesday not to come to the airport, saying “resources here are scarce and we can probably help more well digitally than here at an airport.”
The strike began at 3:45 a.m. local time (9:45 p.m. ET) on Wednesday and is scheduled to end at 6 a.m. local time (midnight ET) on Thursday, the union said in a statement.
Top Image: Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s empty check-in counters at Frankfurt Airport Terminal 1 in Frankfurt, Germany, on Friday, June 24, 2022. (Alex Krauss/Bloomberg/Getty Images)
Add Comment