Lufthansa Cancel Flights As Strike Continues

German national carrier Lufthansa today had to cancel 78 flights after industrial action involving its cabin and ground staff continued.

Medium and short-haul flights have already been affected with as many as 70 being cancelled on Tuesday, with long-haul flights today being the latest victims. The strike began on Monday with around 4,000 airline workers striking in a protest over pay. The airline worked hard to minimise the impact of the strikes and was confident they would have little effect on operations, however this proved to be an under-estimation of the scale of the problems it would cause.

The problems involving the strike are in stark contrast to the airlines latest profit results as a half-year results announcement was made yesterday showing an operating profit increase of 45% totalling 705 million Euros. The strike is over staff demands for a 10% pay increase with the airline so far offering only 6.7% with a rise to 7.7% after two years. This so far has been unacceptable tothe airlines staff. There have been calls for the union representing the workers, Verdi to re-open talks with Lufthansa to bring an end to the strike.

Published by: Jon Vickery