Lufthansa Cancellations Climb to More Than 1,100 Amid German Airport Strike
The number of canceled Lufthansa flights swelled to more than 1,100 on Tuesday, growing from an estimated 800 cancellations, as airport workers across Germany have gone on strike to demand pay increases.
The grounded flights will affect about 90,000 passengers. Officials at airports across Germany told CNN Money that 700 flights were canceled at Frankfurt Airport (FRA), a major Lufthansa hub that services about 64 million passengers each year. Meanwhile 400 flights were affected at Munich Airport (MUC), and Cologne (CGN) and Bremen (BRE) both saw dozens of cancellations. Lufthansa operates an estimated 1,600 flights per day.
Verdi, a trade union that represents public sector workers such as hospital staff and bus drivers, called for some airport employees to strike over pay disputes. The union wants to see a 6% pay increase for its airport workers, which include ground and security staff and some fire workers, too. Verdi represents about 2.3 million workers throughout Germany, and some of its members in other industries had already been on strike before the airport staff joined on Tuesday.
Lufthansa warned about delays at security checkpoints and is also offering to rebook passengers free of charge. The carrier said operations would likely be back to normal on Wednesday.
