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Lufthansa cancels hundreds of flights; 100,000 passengers affected

Wednesday, 23 Nov 2016 15:40:14

Lufthansa planes in Germany aren't going anywhere as a dispute with pilots deepens. (AP: Michael Probst, file)

Lufthansa has cancelled hundreds of flights as its pilots stage a 48-hour walkout, the latest disruption to its operations in a long-running pay dispute.

Key points:

  • All short and long-haul flights out of Germany affected
  • Lufthansa expects strike to cost up to $13 million a day
  • 14th strike to hit the airline in current row with unions

The pilot union said in a statement that all of Lufthansa's short and long-haul flights out of Germany would be affected by the continued industrial action.

The strike is the 14th to hit the airline in its row with the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union and the airline said it had cancelled 876 of about 3,000 flights scheduled for Wednesday, affecting about 100,000 passengers.

The pilot's union initially called a walkout for 24 hours, but after two courts rejected attempts by Lufthansa to halt the strike, the union extended the strike for a further 24 hours until midnight on Thursday night (local time).

Lufthansa expects the strike will cost 7-9 million euros ($9.9-12.9 million) a day. It said that the call to extend the walkout was "completely incomprehensible".

Flights by Lufthansa's other airlines including Germanwings, Eurowings, Austrian Airlines, SWISS and Brussels Airlines, are not affected, Lufthansa said.

Austrian and SWISS were checking whether they could use larger aircraft to increase the number of passengers they could take on routes like Vienna to Frankfurt.

However, budget airline Eurowings cancelled about 60 flights on Tuesday due to a strike by some cabin crew in a separate pay dispute between management and the Verdi labour union.

Pilots want 3.7 per cent pay rise

Pay talks between Lufthansa and VC broke down this month, and the pilots have rejected calls by Lufthansa for the dispute to be taken to a mediator.

The union is calling for an average increase of 3.7 per cent in pay for 5,400 pilots in Germany over a five-year period dating back to 2012.

But, Lufthansa, which is trying to cut costs to cope with increased competition from low-cost carriers and leaner Gulf rivals, has offered a 2.5 per cent increase over the six years until 2019.

Reuters

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