A German court has denied Lufthansa’s plea to forcibly end the latest strike by its pilots over a retirement benefits dispute, virtually ensuring that the airline must move ahead with plans to cancel the majority of short- and medium-haul flights to and from Frankfurt and suspend almost all long-haul traffic from that hub. The airline expects to operate about half of its planned short- and medium-haul flights from Munich during the strike period thanks to regional subsidiary Lufthansa Cityline, while roughly half of its mainline flights from Munich continue under a special flight plan published Monday afternoon. Long-haul flights to and from Düsseldorf should operate on schedule despite the strike, said the airline.
Pilots walked off the job at 1 p.m. local time on Monday and announced their intention to remain on strike until 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday. Lufthansa published a special flight plan for the first 24 hours of the strike yesterday. It originally intended to operate around 700 of the 2,150 flights planned for the strike period. The union’s announcement on Monday morning that it would expand the scope of the strike to long-haul flights forced Lufthansa to update the flight timetables once again. Lufthansa has now cancelled 1,500 flights, disrupting the travel plans of some 200,000 customers.
“The strikes not only cause severe economic damage to Lufthansa, but they also harm its reputation, with considerable consequences for our company and employees that remain unforeseeable even today,” said Deutsche Lufthansa chief financial officer Simone Menne. “Why the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union is blocking a solution to the collective bargaining conflict without compromise is no longer comprehensible. This is despite the fact that all the other groups of employees have made a constructive contribution to Lufthansa’s success in the future. Our investors expect sustainable and competitive structures across all areas. This also applies to retirement and transitional benefits.”
The airline reported that its employees continue to work “flat out,” primarily to reroute transfer passengers via the hubs in Zurich, Vienna or Brussels to get them to their destination on schedule. Flights operated by the Lufthansa Group airlines Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Germanwings, Swiss and Air Dolomiti continue, while Lufthansa Cargo remains largely unaffected by the strike.
Lufthansa pilots have staged several short strikes this year in protest of plans by the airline to cut early retirement benefits. The airline’s pilots can now retire at age 55 and draw 60 percent of their salary until they turn 63, at which point they become eligible for state- and employer-sponsored retirement benefits. Under increasing competitive pressure from low-fare carriers and Gulf-based majors, Lufthansa wants to raise the early retirement age for new-hire pilots from 55 to 60.
