Lufthansa strike gets worse as over 315,000 passengers affected

The Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) pilots’ union has extended the strike that has been ongoing since Wednesday. The extension has affected all Lufthansa flights within Germany and Europe, a situation that has triggered a scaled-down special flight schedule which has taken effect from today, Friday, November 25, 2016.

The Lufthansa Group has approved 3,000 scheduled flights to be operated as planned. And being the third consecutive day of the strike, over 100,000 passengers will be affected due to the cancellations of 830 short- and medium-haul flights. Long-haul flights will be operating almost as scheduled, although there may be occasional cancellations of these flights resulting from the strikes on the previous days. In total, over 315,000 passengers have been affected by the cancellation of 2,618 flights.

Lufthansa is calling on the pilots’ union once more to develop a joint solution for the dispute through arbitration. Harry Hohmeister, Chief Officer Hub Management of Deutsche Lufthansa AG: “The status quo is that we pay our pilots significantly more than our competitors do. As members of the executive board, we are responsible for more than 120,000 employees and want to keep Lufthansa viable for the future. That will not be possible with a demand for a 20 percent increase in pay.”

The Group airlines Eurowings, Germanwings, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Air Dolomiti and Brussels Airlines are not affected by the strike. The pilots of Lufthansa Cargo have also not been called on to strike. Flights to and from Germany that are operated by Group airlines are proceeding as scheduled. Austrian Airlines and SWISS have also increased their capacity on flights to Germany by using larger aircraft for the time being.

Customers whose flights have been cancelled due to the strike have the one-time option to transfer or cancel their booking free of charge. In addition to this, all passengers with tickets for flights travelling to, from or through Germany by tomorrow have the one-time option to transfer their booking at no cost. For routes within Germany, there is also the option to exchange the flight ticket for a Deutsche Bahn voucher. On LH.com, passengers can find additional information under “Aktuelle Fluginformationen” (current travel information).

Lufthansa is doing everything in its power to minimize the impact of the strike on its guests. Thousands of hotel rooms have been booked in the Rhine-Main and Munich areas. For passengers who cannot enter Germany due to visa restrictions, Lufthansa has set up folding cots in cooperation with Fraport. Employees are providing passengers in the terminals who have been affected by the strike with beverages, snacks and telecommunication options. Lufthansa is notifying all passengers that have provided contact information in their customer profiles of any cancellations by e-mail or SMS.

The airline has appealed to all its customers to take precaution by checking the status of their flight on LH.com before travelling to the airport. Customers in Germany can also call our free hotline at 0800 850 60 70 for information (free from German landlines).