Lufthansa pilots pause strike action

After a week of disruption, Lufthansa pilots were set to get back to normal on Saturday. Keystone-SDA

Lufthansa passengers can breathe a sigh of relief for now. Following strikes this week, the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) pilots’ union said on Friday it was not planning any further action in the immediate future.

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First, the board and collective bargaining committee must assess the situation, and preliminary talks with Lufthansa about possible mediation are planned for Monday, it was reported. A first attempt at mediation failed when both sides could not agree on a common set of issues. Hundreds of flights were cancelled again on Friday.

Together with the UFO union, representing cabin crew staff, pilots brought operations at Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo, and Cityline to a standstill for five days this week. The Eurowings airline was also affected by a two-day strike.

The company reacted on Thursday with an immediate suspension of all flight operations at Cityline. The cutback was also attributed to high fuel costs for the regional airline’s aging fleet.

Aiming for normality on Saturday

On Friday, some 650 of 1,337 scheduled takeoffs and landings at Frankfurt Airport were cancelled, operator Fraport said. These figures relate to all airlines operating at the airport, but the cancellations are largely attributable to the Lufthansa strike.

Connections to Switzerland were also hit. At Zurich Airport, six departures and six arrivals to and from Frankfurt were cancelled, a spokeswoman told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA on Friday. Four flights were cancelled at Geneva Airport. One connection to Frankfurt and one to Munich were affected.

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Lufthansa plans to run a largely normal flight schedule again on Saturday, according to a spokeswoman. “However, there may still be some cancellations and delays,” she said.

Cityline’s 24 passenger and three cargo aircraft will be taken out of service. In the past, the airline operated feeder flights to the hubs in Frankfurt and Munich under Lufthansa flight numbers. These will be cancelled starting Saturday, the spokeswoman added, and passengers will receive rebookings or refunds. The extent to which Cityline services can be replaced will be assessed in the next weeks.

The VC pilot union had sharply criticised Lufthansa’s intensified cost-cutting measures and questioned their justification. Friday marked the fifth consecutive day of strikes. Pilots were called to strike on four days this week, and flight attendants on two. The collective bargaining negotiations for Lufthansa and Cargo pilots are about higher employer contributions to company pensions, while at Cityline the negotiations are about higher salaries.

Adapted from German by AI/dos

This article is an updated version of a previous news report published on Friday, April 17

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