Lufthansa faces deeper disruption as cabin crew joins pilots' strike

Deutsche Lufthansa AG faces more days of significant disruption after cabin crew said they’d stage another two-day strike starting Wednesday, heightening a sense of operational crisis at Europe’s largest airline after pilots also walked off on Monday. 

  The UFO union will use an anniversary event marking Lufthansa’s 100 years in business on Wednesday to strike and stage protests, according to a statement by the worker representatives. That’s after pilots hobbled operations with a strike that covered Lufthansa’s mainline airline, cargo unit and regional carrier CityLine and will spill into Tuesday. Pilots at low-cost unit Eurowings are set to walk out only on Monday. 

   

Flights from Germany to several Middle Eastern destinations are exempt due to the current conflict in the region, the union said. 

 

Hundreds of flights have been canceled. At Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s biggest, 572 of 1,322 scheduled flight movements were scrapped on Monday, affecting about 56,000 passengers, a spokesperson said.

 

Lufthansa said it has drawn up a contingency schedule, allowing it to operate about a third of short-haul flights and roughly half of long-haul services at the affected airlines on both days.

 

Lufthansa shares dropped as much as 4.5 per cent in Frankfurt trading. They are down about 9.6 per cent so far this year.

 

The walkout follows months of stalled negotiations over pension payments. The union is demanding higher company contributions, while Lufthansa says there is little room for increases. 

 

“The VC union is striking at Lufthansa Classic and Cargo to demand a doubling of an already excellent pension plan,” said Lufthansa’s executive board member Michael Niggemann. “And this at a time of global political tensions and major risks to our business. This is irresponsible.”

 

VC argues the company has failed to present viable offers, saying there is no proposal for a new pension plan at Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo, no workable pay deal at CityLine, and that the Eurowings offer is “unacceptable”.

 

The strike adds to a wave of labor unrest at Europe’s largest aviation group. Earlier stoppages this year, including a one-day pilot strike in February that grounded about 800 flights and a two-day walkout in March, have already disrupted operations, along with a recent cabin crew strike over the busy Easter travel period.

 

The renewed tensions come at a difficult time for Lufthansa, which is grappling with high fuel costs and broader geopolitical uncertainty affecting air travel. Lufthansa is trying to boost profitability with a plan to cut 4,000 administrative jobs by 2030 and shift more short-haul flying to lower-cost units such as City Airlines and Discover, where crew costs are as much as 40 per cent lower than at the Lufthansa flagship airline.