Frankfurt: Germany’s aviation sector was thrown into chaos on Thursday as pilots and flight attendants at Lufthansa staged a nationwide strike over pay and working conditions, grounding hundreds of flights and stranding passengers at major airports.
At Frankfurt Airport, the country’s busiest hub, 450 of 1,117 scheduled departures were cancelled. In Munich, Germany’s second-largest airport, 275 of 920 flights were scrapped, underscoring the scale of disruption.
Around 4,800 pilots at Lufthansa and its cargo subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo walked off the job in a dispute over higher company pensions, according to the Cockpit Association pilots’ union. Simultaneously, cabin crew launched a warning strike to pressure management into negotiations over collective bargaining issues.
The UFO union, representing flight attendants, also called on employees at Lufthansa CityLine — a regional subsidiary facing closure — to join the industrial action. Lufthansa management has rejected the unions’ demands.
“The strike is proceeding as expected,” said UFO representative Harry Jaeger at Frankfurt, where long queues formed at Lufthansa counters.
Passengers were urged to check their flight status before heading to the airport to avoid unnecessary trips and further congestion during the strike.
Union leaders said participation in the strike had been “very good in Frankfurt.” Cockpit Association president Andreas Pinheiro accused Lufthansa of failing to present a new offer.
Pinheiro reiterated the need for a new offer from Lufthansa and stated that, without negotiations, further strikes remain a strong possibility.
“As a trade union, we do not have many means at our disposal other than industrial action. If there is no offer, the spiral of escalation continues.”