Lufthansa Pilot Strike Extended Into Saturday

Lufthansa pilot union Vereinigung Cockpit has extended strike action for another day, to midnight Saturday, but only for long-haul flights.

The union, which had extended its original stop work on Wednesday by two further 24 hour periods, has added a Saturday 00:01 to 23:59 strike on long-haul flights.

VC said it regrets the impact on passengers, cabin crew and ground staff.

Lufthansa apologised for the inconvenience and said it would do “everything possible to keep the impact as low as possible.”

The airline cancelled 1800 flights system-wide on Wednesday and Thursday, with a further 830 short-haul flights cancelled on Friday. Saturday’s long-haul strike will mean further cancellations in the rolling industrial action by pilots.

Over 300,000 people have had travel plans disrupted so far by the cancellations.

The strike affects only Lufthansa flights. Other Lufthansa group airlines - Lufthansa CityLine, Germanwings, Eurowings, Air Dolomiti, Austrian Airlines, SWISS and Brussels Airlines - are not affected.

The Vereinigung Cockpit union wants a 3.66 percent average pay increase for the last five years. VC said Lufthansa has not increased pilot pay during the period and that the airline had made EUR€5 billion profit during that time.