Lufthansa pilots’ strike to cause flight chaos on Friday

Airline passengers booked to travel on Lufthansa on Friday 2 September face widespread cancellations due to a sudden pilots’ strike.

The German pilots’ union, Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), has called a strike from 12.01am for 24 hours. The Independent calculates at least 200,000 passengers could be affected.

The carrier says it is “unable to provide more specific information on the impact of the walkouts at this time”, adding: “In the course of today, Thursday, Lufthansa will adjust the flight schedule and publish the cancellations. All guests with contact details in the booking will be informed via text message or mail.”

Knock-on effects from the strike will impact some flights at the weekend.

Normally Lufthansa operates dozens of flights each day between the UK and its hubs at Frankfurt and Munich. All flights to and from London Heathrow – 18 serving Frankfurt, 16 serving Munich – are currently shown as “on time”, but wholesale cancellations are likely to be made during Thursday.

Under European air passengers’ rights rules, travellers are entitled to be flown to their final destination as soon as possible. For example, a passenger booked to fly from Manchester via Frankfurt to New York has a right to be re-routed via Dublin, Paris, or Amsterdam.

Lufthansa says it is offering pilots a monthly increase of €900 (£775) on base pay, and accuses the pilots’ union of making demands that “would increase payroll costs by over 40 per cent”.

The airline’s labour director, Michael Niggemann, said: “We cannot understand VC’s call for a strike. The management has made a very good and socially balanced offer – despite the continuing burdens of the Covid crisis and uncertain prospects for the global economy.

“This escalation comes at the expense of many thousands of customers.”

Lufthansa says the union is demanding “more money, for example, for sick days, vacation or training”.

Matthias Baier, spokesman for VC, said: “Aware of our responsibility for companies and guests, we wanted to leave no stone unturned and offered another negotiation date despite an inadequate offer and failed negotiations.

“The negotiations have failed.

“Therefore, the only thing left for us to do is to enforce our demands with a labour dispute.”

Passengers whose domestic flights are cancelled can exchange their plane ticket to a Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) train ticket free of charge.