Lufthansa cabin crew to go on strike in German cities

Lufthansa said about 100,000 passengers will be affected by the flight suspension. (representative)

Lufthansa cabin crew will go on strike for two days next week in Frankfurt and Munich, Germany, the UFO union announced on Saturday, days after the airline announced record profits.

“On Thursday, the organization announced record results,” said UFO union leader Joachim Vazquez Buerger.

“Crews must be able to benefit from this success and the efforts made during the coronavirus crisis must be rewarded.”

The strike, which will cover flights from Frankfurt on Tuesday and Munich on Wednesday, also affects Lufthansa subsidiary CityLine.

Lufthansa said late Saturday that around 100,000 passengers would be affected by the grounding of flights.

“We deeply regret that it has come to this and ask our passengers … to forgive us for the inconvenience,” he said.

On Thursday, Lufthansa reported that profits doubled in 2023 due to strong demand, with net profit reaching 1.67 billion euros ($1.82 billion), significantly higher than 2022’s 791 million euros.

It marked the second consecutive year of profitability for the group, whose airlines include Lufthansa, Eurowings, Austrian Airlines, SWISS and Brussels Airlines, after two years of losses due to pandemic shutdowns.

The company also took the opportunity to warn of the “devastating” impact of a wave of strike action earlier this year.

But employee representatives say wages have not kept pace with incomes despite inflation eroding their spending power, leading to a series of strikes since the start of the year.

The latest strike began last Thursday, with Lufthansa ground staff embarking on a two-day nationwide strike following a previous strike in February.

“With no agreement after 15 rounds of negotiations, we must assume that management wants the situation to worsen at the expense of passengers,” UFO negotiator Harry Jaeger said late Saturday.

Lufthansa said it made a “very good offer, especially a salary increase of at least 10%”.

The company proposed giving cabin crew a 3,000-euro ($3,280) bonus and a 6% pay increase in August, followed by a 3.25% raise a year later.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)