Passengers travelling with Lufthansa and its regional subsidiary Cityline should prepare for widespread flight cancellations and delays on Thursday and Friday, after the pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) called a two-day strike across Lufthansa, its cargo arm Lufthansa Cargo, and Cityline. Pilots are set to walk out from 00.01 on Thursday until 23.59 on Friday.
This is not the first industrial action at Lufthansa in recent weeks. On 12 February, cockpit crews staged a strike that forced the cancellation of 800 flights and affected around 100,000 passengers, according to the airline. The strike at Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo centres on a dispute over occupational pension provisions. VC members had already voted by a large majority in favour of industrial action back in September, though the union subsequently sought to resume talks with management before escalating.
The union said on Tuesday that even following the 12 February strike, the employer had still not tabled an offer. "It does not help when the other side only signals a willingness to talk but does not want to discuss substantive improvements to occupational pension provisions," said VC president Andreas Pinheiro. "We will only resume talks once a negotiable offer is on the table," announced Arne Karstens, spokesperson for the collective bargaining commission.
At Lufthansa Cityline, the union and management are in dispute over a new pay agreement. The union said that no workable offer has been presented there either, describing the employer's proposal as "not acceptable."
Vereinigung Cockpit confirmed on Tuesday that flights to and from current crisis regions in the Middle East will not be included in the strike action. This applies to flights both arriving from and departing to Egypt, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Yemen, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
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