Lufthansa pilots’ strike grounds over 1,000 flights in Germany

A strike by Lufthansa pilots stretched into another day Friday, triggering widespread flight cancellations at Germany’s biggest carrier and intensifying a pay dispute that the union said showed no signs of progress.

At Frankfurt, Lufthansa’s main hub, about 650 of more than 1,300 planned takeoffs and landings were canceled, according to Fraport, the airport operator. In Munich, the airline’s second-largest hub, more than 400 of 915 scheduled takeoffs and landings were scrapped.

The walkout hit Lufthansa’s mainline operations, Lufthansa Cargo and its regional subsidiary CityLine, disrupting travel for tens of thousands of passengers and compounding earlier cancellations at Frankfurt and Munich this week. Pilots struck on four days, while cabin crew walked out on two.

Lufthansa said Thursday it would begin cost-cutting measures amid the financial impact of the repeated labor disputes and rising jet fuel prices. As an immediate step, the airline said it would remove CityLine's 27 Canadair regional jets from its flight schedule, citing their age and relatively high operating costs.

The pilots' union, Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), sharply criticized the short-notice suspension of CityLine operations and voiced concern about the effects on employees and Germany's status as an aviation hub.

"From VC's perspective, the Lufthansa Group has abandoned the path of rationality," union President Andreas Pinheiro said in a statement. "This is being done without regard for the employees and fails to live up to its responsibilities."

Pinheiro added that the airline’s stated reasons, including geopolitical factors, were unconvincing because no competitors were withdrawing capacity on a similar scale.

“Rather, there are strong indications that this is a measure related to the ongoing labor disputes with the unions VC and UFO,” he said.