Summary
- Lufthansa strike ends, slowly resuming flights in Frankfurt and Munich hubs. Delays and cancellations expected.
- Over 100,000 passengers affected by strike, causing chaos in customer support.
- Verdi demands 12.5% pay rise for ground employees, with negotiations ongoing.
The strike involving ground staff at Lufthansa has come to an end on Wednesday morning, with the airline slowly restoring capability to its Frankfurt and Munich hubs. It has warned passengers to expect some delays or cancellations throughout the day.
Lufthansa strike over
Lufthansa has announced its plans to “regularly resume flight operations” within the wake of the strike, which saw the German carrier cancel 900 out of 1,000 flights at affected airports. As Easy Flying reported this week, Lufthansa could only operate around 10% of its scheduled flights through the 35-hour walkout – which ran from 04:00 on Tuesday, February 20, to 07:10 on Wednesday, February 21. In reality, some IT and technical staff began the walkout even sooner, causing preemptive cancelations starting Monday evening.
Photo: Ruben M Ramos | Shutterstock
Of their second walkout this month, ground staff conducted walkouts at seven major airports – Berlin, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Munich and Stuttgart. Verdi also called for a strike on February 7 that saw walkouts at five airports and compelled tons of of flight cancelations.
Verdi representative Marvin Reschinsky said,
Data from FlightAware shows that Lufthansa has still canceled over 30 flights today – the vast majority of that are at Frankfurt – with that figure more likely to rise because the day progresses.
Passenger impact
Over 100,000 passengers were affected by the wave of cancelations, which left Lufthansa’s customer support capability overloaded. Those booked on canceled flights were informed via email or app and will rebook without cost. Nonetheless, for those passengers requiring more urgent customer care, the situation was reportedly chaotic because the understaffed airline struggled to address demand.
Under European passengers’ rights laws, travelers are entitled to be rebooked on the following available flight without additional charge, and must even be supplied with accommodation and meals by their airline.
Verdi demands remain
Trade union Verdi is demanding a 12.5% pay rise and a one-off bonus of €3,000 ($3,240) for workers to reflect inflation. 96% of members rejected an earlier offer from Lufthansa that may have granted a ten% raise, with the union claiming that ground employees haven’t seen cost of living increases to address rising prices over the past few years. Further talks between the 2 parties are expected to happen on Wednesday.
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In Focus: German Airport Strikes Canceled Over 1,000 Flights Last Week
The strike mainly affected Lufthansa’s operations in Frankfurt and Munich.
Were your travel plans impacted by the strike? Did you manage to rebook your trip? Tell us within the comments.