Lufthansa Cancels Nearly All Flights in Frankfurt and Munich, Stranding 130,000
Lufthansa canceled virtually all flights to and from Frankfurt and Munich on Wednesday, leaving more than 130,000 travelers panicked after about 3,000 employees quit their jobs in protest of better wages. .
As of Wednesday evening in Germany, the airline said it had cut 678 flights to and from Frankfurt and 345 flights to and from its Munich hub in the past 48 hours.
“For the start of the holiday season in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg next weekend, Lufthansa is doing everything possible to restore normal operations as quickly as possible,” the company said in a statement. The airline will try to rebook passengers on alternative flights, but added that “the capacity available for this is very limited.”
The protest is expected to end at 6 a.m. local time on Thursday, according to Dennis Dakke, an official with the United Services Union, known as ver.di... From 3:45 am on Wednesday, ground service representatives, customer service representatives, airport check-in personnel and other “non-flying” Lufthansa employees belonging to ver.di will travel to Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin. , and elsewhere, he said. If a Lufthansa agent picked up the phone to help someone rebook a flight, that agent was likely outside Germany, he added.
“Salaries are not high enough to explain inflation,” Dacke explained his protest. The union wants wages for ground staff to rise by 9.5% and the minimum wage for logistics workers to €13 an hour (about $13 at the current exchange rate).
In a statement, Lufthansa outlined wage increases it had already offered during “previously constructive collective bargaining” and lamented the impact on passengers “during peak travel seasons”. Flight attendants and pilots did not participate in the protest.
Cancellations also affected other airlines. Air Canada has consolidated two of his flights between Toronto and Frankfurt into one of his flights with a larger aircraft, the airline said.
