Lufthansa flight disruptions worsen as strike drags on

A strike by pilots at Lufthansa continued into a second day on Friday, leading to widespread flight cancellations and escalating a pay dispute that the union said showed no signs of progress.

At Frankfurt Airport, the airline’s main hub, around 650 of more than 1,300 scheduled takeoffs and landings were canceled, according to airport operator Fraport, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

In Munich Airport, Lufthansa’s second-largest hub, over 400 of 915 planned takeoffs and landings were also scrapped.

The strike affected Lufthansa’s core operations, its cargo division, and its regional subsidiary CityLine, disrupting travel for tens of thousands of passengers and adding to earlier cancellations at Frankfurt and Munich earlier in the week. Pilots have now staged walkouts on four days, while cabin crew have gone on strike twice.

Lufthansa said on Thursday it would introduce cost-cutting measures in response to the financial strain caused by ongoing labor disputes and rising jet fuel prices. As an immediate step, the airline announced it would remove CityLine’s 27 Canadair regional jets from its flight schedule, citing their age and comparatively high operating costs.

The pilots’ union, Vereinigung Cockpit, strongly criticized the short-notice suspension of CityLine operations and raised concerns about the impact on employees and Germany’s role as an aviation hub.

Union president Andreas Pinheiro said the Lufthansa Group had “abandoned the path of rationality,” arguing that the decision disregarded employees and failed to meet the company’s responsibilities.

He also questioned the airline’s justification, including geopolitical factors, noting that competitors were not reducing capacity on a similar scale. Instead, he suggested there were strong indications the move was linked to the ongoing labor disputes with unions VC and UFO.

News.Az 

By Nijat Babayev