German airline Lufthansa announced Thursday that it will cancel “almost all” of its flights to and from its main airports in Frankfurt and Munich on Friday due to a pilots’ strike. The first European airline will cancel 800 flights during the day of September 2 due to the social movement announced on Wednesday night in the context of negotiations on salary increases, according to a press release, specifying that “130,000 passengers are affected”.
The strike, which affects Lufthansa companies and the Lufthansa cargo branch but not Eurowings, is expected to last from 00:01 to 23:59. “The new tariff negotiations (…) have failed,” the Vereinigung Cockpit union announced on the night of Wednesday to Thursday, which demands a 5.5% increase in wages, automatic compensation for inflation and adjustments in the rates.
Lufthansa has expressed its “total incomprehension” for the social movement, which comes after a difficult summer for the airline sector due to the shortage of personnel at airports and a strike by the company’s ground staff at the end of July, which also left land to hundreds of robberies The group assures that it has been proposed that its pilots “obtain in two stages a total increase of 900 euros per month”.
5500 pilots
“Lufthansa must make a better offer,” said union leader Marcel Gröls. Lufthansa employs approximately 5,500 pilots in its passenger and freight transport activities. Vereinigung Cockpit is the only union that represents them. A consultation on the strike principle at the end of July had given a majority of 98% in favor of the movement among passenger pilots and 99% in Cargo with a participation of approximately 95% of the members.
The group reached an agreement in early August with the Verdi union, which represents ground crews. Employees will receive an increase of 200 euros per month, then an additional 2.5% in early 2023 and another 2.5% in July 2023.
Source: BFM TV
