Germany’s Lufthansa cancels 830 Friday flights in strike

Lufthansa will also be notifying all passengers who have provided contact information in their customer profiles of any flight cancellations by e-mail or SMS. The airline said there may also be a few cancellations on short and medium-haul routes as a result of the previous days’ strike.

Lufthansa said some 830 more flights would be cancelled, but that long-haul flights would be “carried out virtually according to schedule” during the week.

Travellers were hit by a second day of chaos as a walk-out by Lufthansa pilots led to nearly 2,000 flight cancellations.

Yesterday evening, the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) pilots’ union announced another extension of the strike that has been ongoing since Wednesday.

Lufthansa has responded by focusing on long-haul flights and catering to business and first-class passengers.

Meanwhile airline has repeated its plea to the pilots’ union, Vereinigung Cockpit, to look for a solution in a negotiation process.

Pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit chose to extend its two-day strike to Friday, further increasing pressure on the airline.

Tomorrow’s walkout will affect only short-haul flights.

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr has said the carrier’s future would be on the line if pilots’ wages were raised to the level demanded.

The Lufthansa pilots are demanding a pay rise of an average of 3.66 percent per year, retroactive for the past five years.

Lufthansa has offered much less as a rise, arguing that meeting the demands of the union is actually impossible. Flights at the group’s Swiss and Austrian divisions and the Eurowings discount brand are also operating normally.

“With a demand of 20 percent wage increases we can not make Lufthansa fit for the future”, said Lufthansa executive Harry Hohmeister.

Lufthansa said it had reserved almost 4,000 hotel rooms in the Frankfurt and Munich areas as a precaution for Wednesday night, and put about 400 camp beds in place at Frankfurt airport for passengers who don’t have visas to enter Germany.

Lufthansa has called on the pilots to enter mediation, which has been rejected by their union because it is first seeking a better offer from management as a basis for talks.