Lufthansa back on track as flights resume
Carrier only managed 32 of its 1,700 scheduled flights on Monday as strike began
Dubai: All of Lufthansa’s flights — in the Middle East as well as globally — are back to normal, following a day-long strike by ground staff and some cabin crew on Monday.
“Flights are back to normal,” Aage Dünhaupt, Lufthansa German Airlines’ director of Group Communications for Southeast Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told Gulf News in an emailed statement.
The German flag carrier was forced into cancelling almost all of its flights on Monday as it was struck by a second strike in a month over pay, affecting around 150,000 passengers around the world.
Lufthansa, Europe’s largest airline by passengers carried, said it managed to operate only 32 of its 1,700 scheduled flights worldwide on Monday as unions representing more than 33,000 ground crew and other staff, went on strike.
The flights affected in the UAE included one flight from Abu Dhabi and two from Dubai.
The 24-hour “warning” strike affected at Germany’s biggest airports including Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg.
As three rounds of pay talks with management ended in no agreement, services union Verdi called the strike on Monday, demanding a 5.2 per cent pay increase for staff, job guarantees and a shorter, 12-month contract period.
A similar action by the union last month resulted in 700 flight cancellations [out of a total 1,800 flights] last month following half a day of warning strikes.
