Cabin crew members have received court approval for an 48-hour long strike at German flag-carrier Lufthansa. The airline has cancelled around 1,300 flights for Thursday and Friday.
The strike was first announced by the union UFO (“Independent Flight Attendant Organisation”), which represents cabin crew at Lufthansa, on Monday. It is due to start in the night from Wednesday to Thursday at 12am and will last for exactly 48 hours. The airline has activated a ‘special flight plan’.
Lufthansa initially disputed the legality of the planned strike and filed for an injunction at Frankfurt’s labor court, which was rejected on Wednesday, giving green light to the labor action. The two other unions representing Lufthansa cabin crew members (Verdi and CU) met for talks with CEO Carsten Spohr on Wednesday evening. UFO declined the airline’s invitation.
According to the carrier, its subsidiary airlines, including Lufthansa Cityline, Swiss, Austrian and Eurowings, will not be directly affected by the two-day strike. However, minor disruptions at those airlines are possible. A total of 180,000 passengers, booked on 1,300 now-cancelled flights have to be rearranged on alternative flights. Some travelers are able to change to a different Lufthansa Group airline for their journey.
Lufthansa offers all passengers due to fly to/from Munich or Frankfurt on Thursday or Friday, including those currently not affected by the cancellations, to change their tickets to a different flight which is taking off within the next 10 days. Domestic travelers can also convert their booked flight with Lufthansa to a Deutsche Bahn train ticket free of charge.
Jakob Wert is an aviation journalist from Germany. He built up the website IFN.news and is the Editor-In-Chief of International Flight Network.
