Lufthansa axes 800 flights tomorrow amid German pilots’ strike
Lufthansa will axe 800 flights on Friday after German pilots announced a 24-hour walkout.
The measure is likely to leave 130,000 passengers stranded, impacting Lufthansa’s services from Frankfurt and Munich on Thursday too.
The airline said it was doing everything it could to minimise the strike’s impact.
The German pilots’ union, the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), said late last night the action would go ahead after the carrier’s management failed to improve its offer.
Lufthansa’s pilots have been asking for a 5.5 per cent pay rise as well as automatic inflation compensation. Inflation rates are currently at 8.8 per cent.
The carrier, on the other hand, has pledged to increase pilots’ basic pay per month by €900 (£780) in two stages over 18 months. In addition Lufthansa guaranteed cockpit personnel a minimum fleet size.
“We cannot understand VC’s call for a strike,” said Michael Niggemann, Lufthansa’s chief human resources officer. “The management has made a very good and socially balanced offer – despite the continuing burdens of the Covid crisis and uncertain prospects for the global economy.
“This escalation comes at the expense of many thousands of customers.”
The pilots’ strike is the latest industrial action to plague the German carrier, after security workers and ground staff went on strike over salaries.