Lufthansa Strike: Special Flight Schedule In Effect For Friday November 25th

Yesterday evening, the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) pilots’ union announced another extension of the strike that has been ongoing since Wednesday.

Tomorrow, Friday, 25 November, all Lufthansa flights within Germany and Europe will be affected. A special flight schedule is in effect for tomorrow.

On Friday, 2,170 of the Lufthansa Group’s approximately 3,000 scheduled flights will be operating as planned. Tomorrow, on the third consecutive day of strikes, over 100,000 passengers will be affected due to the cancellations of 830 short- and medium-haul flights. Long-haul flights will be operating almost as scheduled, although there may be occasional cancellations of these flights resulting from the strikes on the previous days. In total, over 315,000 passengers have been affected by the cancellation of 2,618 flights.

Lufthansa is calling on the pilots’ union once more to develop a joint solution for the dispute through arbitration. Harry Hohmeister, Chief Officer Hub Management of Deutsche Lufthansa AG: “The status quo is that we pay our pilots significantly more than our competitors do. As members of the executive board, we are responsible for more than 120,000 employees and want to keep Lufthansa viable for the future. That will not be possible with a demand for a 20 percent increase in pay.”

The Group airlines Eurowings, Germanwings, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Air Dolomiti and Brussels Airlines are not affected by the strike. The pilots of Lufthansa Cargo have also not been called on to strike. Flights to and from Germany that are operated by Group airlines are proceeding as scheduled. Austrian Airlines and SWISS have also increased their capacity on flights to Germany by using larger aircraft for the time being.

Customers whose flights have been cancelled due to the strike have the one-time option to transfer or cancel their booking free of charge. In addition to this, all passengers with tickets for flights travelling to, from or through Germany by tomorrow have the one-time option to transfer their booking at no cost. For routes within Germany, there is also the option to exchange the flight ticket for a Deutsche Bahn voucher. On LH.com, passengers can find additional information under “Aktuelle Fluginformationen” (current travel information).

Lufthansa is doing everything in its power to minimize the impact of the strike on its guests. Thousands of hotel rooms have been booked in the Rhine-Main and Munich areas. For passengers who cannot enter Germany due to visa restrictions, Lufthansa has set up folding cots in cooperation with Fraport. Employees are providing passengers in the terminals who have been affected by the strike with beverages, snacks and telecommunication options. Lufthansa is notifying all passengers that have provided contact information in their customer profiles of any cancellations by e-mail or SMS.

Lufthansa is asking all its customers to take precaution by checking the status of their flight on LH.com before travelling to the airport. Customers in Germany can also call our free hotline at 0800 850 60 70 for information (free from German landlines).

Lufthansa Publishes Special Flight Timetable For Strike

Despite the third day of strike action in a row, the Lufthansa Group will once again operate three quarters of its 3,000 daily flights on March 20, 2015.

Long-haul flights will depart as scheduled again on Friday.

The Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union (VC) has called another strike on Lufthansa’s short and medium-haul flights for tomorrow, 20 March 2015 – the third strike in three days. Lufthansa will have to cancel 700 flights as a result of the VC strike, which is only 50 per cent of its total number of 1,400 flights scheduled for tomorrow. Nevertheless, 84,000 passengers in total will be affected by the strike-related flight cancellations. The company sincerely apologizes to its passengers for the inconvenience caused.

Unrelated to the VC strike, a further 90 flights with around 10,000 passengers will unfortunately have to be cancelled too, due to the strike by Italian air traffic controllers which will also take place tomorrow.

Lufthansa’s long-haul flights will not be affected by the strike on Friday. They will therefore operate largely as normal tomorrow. All Germanwings, Eurowings, Air Dolomiti, Swiss, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines flights will also depart as scheduled. In spite of the strike action announced, the Lufthansa Group will operate around three quarters of its 3,000 daily flights on 20 March 2015.

Lufthansa is doing everything it can to minimize the impact of the VC strike. The other airlines in the Lufthansa Group will once again use bigger aircraft for their flights to and from Germany wherever possible.

Lufthansa flights will operate largely as scheduled again on Saturday when the strike is over.

Passengers whose flights had to be cancelled due to the strike can rebook or cancel their flights at no charge. In addition, all passengers in possession of a ticket from Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines or Brussels Airlines for flights on 20 March 2015 to, from or via Frankfurt and Munich can rebook their flights on a one-off basis at no charge online under “My Bookings” with certain conditions. Tickets for domestic German flights can be exchanged for rail tickets.

Travelore News: Lufthansa Prepares For Pilot Strike

COLOGNE, Germany - The Vereiniging Cockpit (VC) union on Sunday announced the 36-hour strike action was to take place Monday and Tuesday, following a breakdown in negotiations with Lufthansa management in a long-running dispute over planned changes to early retirement benefits.

"During the strike period, disruptions of Lufthansa flights are expected. Lufthansa is currently working intensely on a special timetable for the strike period, which will be published as soon as possible," Germany's biggest airline said in a statement on its website Sunday.

The pilot strikes will affect only passengers with Lufthansa, not its budget subsidiary Germanwings or any of its other subsidiaries. Affecting departures and arrivals Germany-wide, they are due to come into effect on short and medium-haul passenger flights between Monday, December 1, midday German time (1100 UTC/GMT) to just before midnight on Tuesday, as well as long-haul flights from between 3 a.m. local time Tuesday, to just before midnight. Flights of Lufthansa Cargo would also be affected at the same times on Tuesday.

Long-running dispute

The strike action centers on a long-running disagreement between the union and Lufthansa management over the airline's plans to gradually increase the age at which pilots are eligible to take early retirement by five years. Currently, pilots can retire at age 55 and receive up to 60 percent of their pay until the normal pension kicks in at the age of 65. The union wants this to continue for all pilots. Lufthansa is in the process of expanding its budget operations as it undergoes restructuring in the face of heavy competition from low-budget rival airlines.

The parties had held negotiations since the previous round of strikes in October. In a statement released Sunday, the union held Lufthansa's management responsible that the points of conflict could not be solved in that time. Lufthansa in turn called the strike action disproportionate.

Pilots for Lufthansa and its subsidiaries have already staged eight walkouts this year, which according to the airline cost the company some 170 million euros ($211.62 million) in lost revenue.

Passengers in Germany have faced a year of disruptions due to industrial action, with Deutsche Bahn rail services also affected by repeated strikes. Train drivers' union GDL and the German national rail operator are considering their next moves; however, union leaders have ruled out calling strikes during the Christmas holiday period.