Lufthansa cancels hundreds of flights as pilots go on 24-hour strike
Walkout to affect 100,000 passengers; 876 of 3,000 flights cancelled
Lufthansa has cancelled hundreds of flights scheduled for Wednesday as its pilots plan a 24-hour walkout, the latest threat of disruption to its operations in a long-running pay dispute.
The strike is the 14th to hit the airline in its row with the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union and the airline said it has cancelled 876 of roughly 3,000 flights scheduled for Wednesday, affecting about 100,000 passengers.
Lufthansa was seeking to prevent the strike going ahead late on Tuesday after a Frankfurt labour court earlier rejected its application for an injunction.
But a judge at the Hesse state labour court rejected the company’s appeal and said the strike may go ahead, adding that the labour dispute was too complex to be properly dealt with in the form of an expedited injunction.
The action is the latest in two years of clashes over pay, working conditions and moves to turn Lufthansa’s Eurowings unit into a fully fledged discount carrier. The Vereinigung Cockpit pilot union is seeking a 20 per cent raise for the period spanning 2012 through 2017, or 3.7 per cent a year. Spohr has offered 2.5 per cent, or 0.38 per cent annually, through 2018.
The planned strike will run from midnight and affect short-haul and long-haul flights departing from German airports.