Hundreds of flights and more than 100,000 passengers affected: Because of the ground staff’s warning strike, Lufthansa is advising passengers not to come to the airport on Wednesday. Everything you need to know about the warning strike.
At Lufthansa, the announced warning strike by ground staff began on Wednesday night. The airline and its customers expect numerous flight cancellations and delays.
The Verdi union has called on all ground staff, including technology, from maintenance to passenger and aircraft handling, to go on strike. According to Verdi, only Lufthansa companies with around 25,000 employees will be on strike.
Specifically named: Deutsche Lufthansa, Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Cargo, Lufthansa Technik Logistik Services and Lufthansa Engineering and Operational Services.
In Frankfurt and Munich in particular, it could happen that striking Lufthansa counter staff are also unavailable for customers of other group companies such as Swiss or Austrian.
Lufthansa assumes 20,000 employees, while Verdi counts non-tariff workers.
The warning strike began on Wednesday at 4 a.m. and is scheduled to last until Thursday at 7:10 a.m. There is a ban on night flights at Frankfurt Airport from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.
The Lufthansa core company expects that 80 to 90 percent of its flights planned for Wednesday will be canceled, meaning that only 10 to 20 percent of the connections will take place. Specifically, the airline expected to be able to offer 100 to 200 connections to and from Frankfurt and Munich out of around 1,000 planned flights, both intercontinental connections and European flights. The first deletions took place on Tuesday evening. Flights of the Italian Lufthansa subsidiary Air Dolomiti are also affected.
The company spoke of more than 100,000 affected passengers across Germany “who have to change their plans”. Passengers on canceled flights should under no circumstances come to the airport, Lufthansa warned on Tuesday. “Due to the strike, the rebooking counters are unfortunately not staffed,” it says Website the airline.
Warning strike by Lufthansa ground staff: 10 to 20 percent of flights take place on Wednesday
Next wave of strikes at Lufthansa: The Verdi union has called on ground staff to go on strike on Wednesday. The company estimates that 10 to 20 percent of connections take place.
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According to Lufthansa, passengers affected by flight cancellations as a result of the Verdi strike will be informed by email or via the Lufthansa app. Details of existing and canceled connections would be entered into the database lufthansa.com maintained and passengers informed accordingly.
Free rebooking options are available via lufthansa.com, the customer app and the service center. Tickets for flights within Germany could be converted into vouchers for trips with Deutsche Bahn.
Verdi rejected Lufthansa’s offer in the second round of negotiations. According to the information, the sticking points were the increase increments, which were perceived as being too low, and the 36-month term.
“This strike would be unnecessary if Lufthansa were to grant ground employees the same increases as other employee groups in the company,” said Verdi’s negotiator Marvin Reschinsky, according to the statement.
Better working conditions for the staff are also necessary to provide better service to passengers. “If Lufthansa doesn’t realize this after this first warning strike, then the employees are prepared to go on longer strikes.”
Verdi is demanding 12.5 percent more salary, but at least 500 euros per month for a term of twelve months. There will also be a group-wide uniform inflation compensation bonus of 3,000 euros.
The group is initially offering a one-off payment in two steps over a period of 36 months, then a salary increase of 200 euros and two percentage wage increases of three percent in April 2025 and 2.5 percent in April 2026.
Lufthansa human resources director Michael Niggemann criticized Verdi for calling for a strike “before the actual negotiations even began.” The airline described the industrial dispute as “completely incomprehensible in length and extent”.
The next round of negotiations is planned for February 12th in Frankfurt. According to Verdi, three more rounds have been agreed.
Lufthansa subsidiary pilots’ strike at Discover Airlines – several flights canceled
The pilots of the Lufthansa subsidiary Discover are on strike again. A number of flights from Frankfurt planned for Sunday and Monday were canceled or took off later than planned.
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In the Lufthansa Group, in addition to the holiday flight subsidiary Discover, the youngest subsidiary City Airlines is not subject to tariffs for the various professional groups, so there is a risk of further conflicts there. At the parent company Lufthansa, the cabin union UFO has already threatened a warning strike.
The Discover pilots recently went on strike. On Monday, the second day of the strike, only two of the twelve originally planned departures were possible in Frankfurt, as shown in the airport’s online departure schedule. Nine flights were canceled and a connection to Windhoek in Namibia was delayed until Tuesday. Also on Sunday, 10 of the holiday airline’s 16 planned departures were canceled.
Before that, a warning strike by security staff had disrupted the plans of many passengers. Passengers were unable to board on Thursday because security checks were not carried out. Only transit flights were possible. According to airport operator Fraport, of 1,120 planned flight movements, almost 320 were canceled by the afternoon.
Only transit area open Hundreds of flights canceled at Frankfurt Airport
A warning strike by security staff at Frankfurt Airport has disrupted the plans of many passengers. Passengers were not able to board on Thursday; only transit flights were possible. There could still be waiting times on Friday morning.
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