Lufthansa Cancels Half Of Tuesday Flights Due To Strike

Lufthansa has cancelled more than 800 flights for Tuesday as a result of German union Verdi’s call for strikes at Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne and Bremen airports.

The airline said ground handling and support services staff, and part of the airport fire service will strike between 05:00 and 18:00 (5am - 6pm) on Tuesday, causing the cancellation of around half the airline’s 1,600 scheduled flights. About 90,000 of its passengers will be affected, Lufthansa said.

The Verdi union has called for “widespread strikes in all federal states” from April 10 to 14 in support of a 6 percent wage increase for its 2.3 million public service members. It is also seeking an increase in training allowances and wants trainees to be employed on a permanent basis after a “successful” completion of training.

Lufthansa’s Bettina Volkens said “It is completely unacceptable for the union to impose this conflict on uninvolved passengers. Lufthansa is not a part of this collective bargaining conflict, but unfortunately our customers and our company are being affected.

“We regret that the travel plans of so many customers are being affected by this Verdi strike and we are working on minimising the impact as much as possible.”

Germany’s busiest airport, Frankfurt, expects “major disruptions and flight cancellations” on Tuesday with part of its Terminal 1 closed because of the strike. The airport’s operators Fraport said passengers should check with their airline on flight status, and allow extra travel time to the airport.

Munich, the country’s second busiest airport for international flights, said it is expecting severe disruption on Tuesday, with longer wait times at security checkpoints throughout the day. It stressed the need to allow extra travel time to get to the airport and asked passengers on confirmed flights to arrive “as early as possible.”

Lufthansa has published an alternative flight schedule and requested passengers to check the status of their flights before leaving for the airport.