Germany’s largest airline Lufthansa said it was cancelling almost 1,700 flights on Monday, mostly on domestic and short-haul European routes, as a result of planned strike action by thousands of workers calling for higher pay.
“We expect things to return to normal by Wednesday, but there are no flights flying out [to Hong Kong] from Germany today.” said Frank Puttmann, the director of Lufthansa Group Communications Asia Pacific.
Puttman said the airline was confident the German union Verdi representing striking workers would only strike for a day, ahead of the fourth round of negotiations scheduled for the 29th and 30th of this month.
“Its part of European political rules for warning strikes,” said Puttmann who added flights out of Hong Kong would operate normally, because they will arrive after the strike is over. Flights originating from Frankfurt and Munich to Hong Kong today were all cancelled.
There are three flights operated out of Hong Kong daily by the Lufthansa Group, two under Lufthansa, and one by its subsidiary Swiss Air. Swiss Air and Austrian Airlines, another subsidiary of the group, will be unaffected by the strike, said Puttmann.
Verdi, representing 33,000 staff at the airline, announced the strike action on Friday to put pressure on Lufthansa management to make a better pay offer.