Lufthansa to cancel 800 flights due to strike demanding pay rise

Lufthansa had to cancel 800 out of 1,600 flights on Tuesday following the continued strike demanding a pay rise in Europe, as BBC reported. The cancellation affected 90,000 passengers.

Lufthansa asked passengers whose flights were not axed to arrive at airports earlier and check their schedules. The strike does not involve the airline’s staff but public sector and ground employees at Bremen, Frankfurt, Cologne, Munich airports.

Germany's worker's union, Verdi, stated that the strike aimed at increasing pressure on companies and public sector institutions ahead of wage negotiations.

The union is demanding a 6 percent pay rise for 2.3 million workers in public sectors.

The similar walk-out demanding a better pay is also seen in France. Air France-KLM cancelled a quarter of its flights on Tuesday following its employees’ strike demanding a 6 percent salary rise after years of a salary freeze.

Lufthansa criticizes unions’demand

Lufthansa , however, slammed Verdi’s threat as”unacceptable”. The company stated it is unfair for uninvolved passengers to be affected by such a disruption.

“It is completely unacceptable for the union to impose this conflict in uninvolved passengers,” Bettina Volkens, Lufthansa ’s human resources head said.

She added that the airline was not a part of the wage dispute. Lufthansa said services at airports would be back to normal on Wednesday. But other public sectors will likely be affected by the strike until Friday.

The strikes’ impact on other airlines

SAS also decided to cancel flights from Scandinavia to Frankfurt and Munich following a massive strike. The airline also advised passengers who planned to travel to France to double check the situation as Air France-KLM added more flights to cancel due to the scheduled walk-out.

Air France-KLM operated 75 percent of its flights on Tuesday after cancelling one-thirds on Saturday.

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