Lufthansa flights expected to return to normal following strike injunction

This comes a day after a regional labor court in Frankfurt, where Lufthansa has its headquarters, ruled in favor of management and ordered the pilots, represented by the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) trade union to return to work.

The airline, which is under pressure to reduce costs to keep up with rivals, said that it expects to return to a normal schedule today.

The action is over Lufthansa’s plans to phase out its early retirement scheme that now sees pilots retire at 55 and retain around 60 per cent of their pay until they reach the state pension age.

For months, the union and management have been at loggerheads over Lufthansa’s creation and expansion of Eurowings, a low-priced subsidiary.

The union started a series of 13 strikes around 18 months ago, initially in protest against changes to early retirement benefits but subsequently due to concerns over low-priced expansion at Lufthansa. VC spokesman Markus Wahl said that the union was surprised by the ruling. “We will review the decision and then draw the consequences for our continuing labour battle”, he said.

The union said it had offered three days next week for talks with management and that the negotiations would focus on the early retirement benefits.

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The airline needs to lower costs to compete with fast-growing budget rivals such as Ireland’s Ryanair.

It said it had immediately suspended the strike. And conservative lawmaker Michael Fuchs said the dispute could be “extremely dangerous” for Lufthansa’s competitiveness, calling on both sides to seek outside arbitration.