German carrier Lufthansa announced it was canceling almost all flights on Wednesday due to a one-day warning strike. Airline authorities warn that more than 134,000 passengers will be affected.
About 1,000 flights will be excluded from the schedules of Munich and Frankfurt am Main airports. Lufthansa has announced that the changes may also apply to select flights on Thursday and Friday.
The German trade union Ver. di called on about 20,000 Lufthansa ground operators to take part in an emergency strike. The unions rejected earlier offers from the carrier from Cologne. “To put the issue on the knife’s edge after just two days of negotiations will result in incalculable losses for the company and passengers,” said Lufthansa board member Michael Niggemann.
The media are reminded that in recent weeks, Lufthansa’s ground personnel have been overwhelmed. It has not kept up with the processing of passengers and baggage, which has already led to the cancellation of hundreds of domestic and neighboring countries. However, tomorrow’s strike also extends to intercontinental flights and takes place at peak traffic in July. In some federal states, the summer holidays only started yesterday.
Problems at European airports
I don’t think anyone thought that Europeans miss flying so much. Of course, representatives of the largest airports on the continent did not know about this. The Dante scenes have been taking place at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport for almost a month now. Passengers cannot check-in. The security lines extend far beyond the terminals, and the planes leave without passengers. There are also problems at Heathrow Airport in London. Service problems forced the Port Authority to cancel some flights.
Passengers have problems not only during check-in. Once they manage to board the plane and land successfully at their destination, they have to consider that their luggage didn’t leave with them, or because of the mess, it left on another plane. Luggage is also damaged much more frequently.