Nearly 800 flights canceled due to Lufthansa pilots strike

Lufthansa pilots today took part in a one-day strike, due to which airline was forced to cancel almost 800 flights at its main airports – Frankfurt and Munich. According to Reutersabout 130 thousand passengers were forced to look for other ways to get to their destinations.

A one-day strike warning has been issued trade union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) on 31 August after talks with Lufthansa management to raise pilot salaries came to nothing. The VC trade union represents the interests of about 5,000 pilots of the German air carrier and is seeking a 5.5% increase in their salaries this year and compensation for inflationary costs, as well as improved terms of the employment contract for new pilots. Lufthansa has calculated that meeting the VC requirements will result in a 40% increase in personnel costs over the next two years, or €900 million. The airline, for its part, proposes to increase the base salary by €900 per month in two stages over a year and a half.

At the beginning of August, Lufthansa already settled with the Verdi trade union, the question of raising the salaries of the airline’s ground personnel, whose interests are represented by this union. This agreement was also preceded by a one-day strike and several stages of negotiations.

Alena Miklashevskaya