(CNN) — More than 1,000 Lufthansa flights have been canceled so far due to this week’s strike, with more than 130,000 passengers affected.
The German airline announced yesterday that it would cancel almost all of its Germany-based flights to Germany on Wednesday.
As a strike by ground staff from the Ver.di union will have a “massive operational impact at the height of the travel season”, the airline said it “has to cancel almost the entire flight schedule at its Frankfurt and Munich hubs “. for Wednesday”.
With the summer holiday season underway, the airline said it was already working under high pressure to restore flight schedules for this weekend, following previous strikes. Wednesday’s strike could still lead to individual flight cancellations or delays on Thursday and Friday, Lufthansa warned.
A total of 678 flights will be canceled at Frankfurt airport, 32 of them on Tuesday and 646 on Wednesday, according to Lufthansa. It is estimated that around 92,000 passengers will be affected.
In central Munich, a total of 345 flights are expected to be cancelled, including 15 on Tuesday and 330 on Wednesday. An estimated 42,000 passengers will be affected, Lufthansa said.
The cancellations include some international flights from Bangkok, Singapore, New York, Los Angeles, Johannesburg and New Delhi.
Lufthansa, which is Germany’s flag carrier, added that rebooking capabilities for passengers affected by cancellations are very limited.
The Ver.di union is demanding a 9.5 percent pay rise for Lufthansa ground staff, with a minimum increase of €350 ($368) a month over 12 months. Staff are overstretched due to significant staff shortages, high inflation and a three-year pay freeze, the union said.
About 20,000 workers have been asked to participate in the Ver.di strike, including ground staff, counter staff and aircraft technicians.
Michael Niggemann, chief human resources and labor chief at Deutsche Lufthansa AG, told reporters on Tuesday that the strikes “were causing enormous damage.”
Lufthansa had offered “very substantial pay rises over the next 12 months”, he said, adding that strike action was “simply no longer proportionate”.
Lufthansa’s head of media relations, Martin Leutke, told reporters on Wednesday that the “massive strike at the back of customers is not understandable and not justified” after going through two rounds of negotiations with the carrier .
He said the company is trying to rebook travelers on the best possible alternative routes and advised customers without confirmed flights on Wednesday not to come to the airport, saying “resources are tight here and we can probably help better digitally than here at the airport.”
The strike began at 3:45 a.m. local time (9:45 p.m. ET) on Wednesday and is set to end at 6:00 a.m. local time (midnight ET) on Thursday, the union said in a statement.
Top Image: Empty check-in counters at Deutsche Lufthansa AG at Terminal 1 of Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt, Germany, on Friday, June 24, 2022. (Alex Kraus/Bloomberg/Getty Images)