Lufthansa pilots have announced a two-day strike next week, the Cockpit Union said on Saturday. The walkout will affect Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo, Lufthansa CityLine and Eurowings.
The union said the stoppage will run from 00:01 on Monday (22:01 UTC on Sunday) until 23:59 on Tuesday.
“The Cockpit Union feels compelled to take this step after the employers showed no discernible willingness to reach a solution in several collective bargaining disputes,” the organization said. Union President Andreas Pinheiro added that, despite a decision not to strike over the Easter holidays, “no serious offers were forthcoming” and there was no meaningful engagement from the employers during that period.
The pilots’ announcement follows a one-day cabin crew strike called by UFO, which began at 22:00 on Friday and covered cabin crew at Lufthansa and its CityLine regional unit.
Lufthansa preemptively canceled hundreds of flights ahead of the industrial action as it sought to limit disruption. Cancellations affected major hubs in Munich and Frankfurt, and other airports including Leipzig/Halle, Berlin and Stuttgart. At Frankfurt, nearly 75% of some 350 scheduled Lufthansa departures were called off.
This is not the first recent disruption for Germany’s flagship carrier: in February, a one-day strike by pilots and flight attendants led to the cancellation of almost 800 flights, impacting about 100,000 passengers.