The first European air transport group Lufthansa will cancel Wednesday, July 26 the “ almost all of its flights in Germany due to a strike by its ground staff, the company announced in a press release in an already tense context for European aviation.
Already 6,000 flights canceled this summer, and this strike leads to the elimination of a thousand additional flights.
All depart or arrive from Frankfurt and Munich, the two most important airport hubs in Germany. Lufthansa must therefore cancel a total of 678 flights in Frankfurt and 345 in Munich, including 47 as of Tuesday for the two most important hubs in Germany.
“ The impact of the strike may lead to occasional cancellations and delays on Thursday and Friday “says the company.
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These cancellations occur at the very beginning of the summer season. The objective of the Verdi union is to make “ turn up the heat in negotiations with management.
It calls for a 9.5% wage increase for ground workers, such as maintenance personnel and aircraft towing vehicle drivers.
A claim that the union justifies in three points: first, the staff has not been increased for three years. Then, high inflation, which amounted to 7.6% last June in Germany. And finally, the shortage suffered by air traffic since the recovery. The economic institute IW estimates that the German aviation sector is short of 7,000 employees. Another consequence of the closure of airports during the pandemic.