Walkouts due to begin on Monday

Lufthansa passengers are bracing for a four-day strike next week which is expected to cripple services by the national carrier and its low-cost subsidiary Germanwings.

Pilots at Lufthansa voted 93 per cent in favour of the industrial action – due to begin at midnight on Monday 22 February – after talks over pay and restructuring broke down.

Vereinigung Cockpit, the union representing 4,500 Lufthansa pilots, had demanded a 6.4 per cent pay rise for its members in addition to guarantees against outsourcing.

The German flag carrier, along with the vast majority of legacy airlines, was hit hard by the fall in passenger demand that accompanied the global recession last year.

Though the industry appears to have turned a corner, many carriers are opting to fundamentally restructure their operations in a bid to safeguard against a similar downturn. Lufthansa rival British Airways is another airline battling industrial disputes as a consequence of its cost-cutting.

Commenting on the scope of the walkout, a union spokesman told The Rheinische Post it would be similar to a three-day strike that brought the airline to its knees in 2001.

“It’s going to be around the same scale this time,” the newspaper quoted the official as saying. “Small warning strikes are insufficient. The differences are too fundamental this time.”

Lufthansa is said to be preparing emergency measures, including reorganising some passengers from several flights onto larger aircraft and booking others onto flights with rival carriers. The airline had warned that the mere threat of a strike was enough to drive customers away.

Last year, hundreds of services were cancelled when cabin crew and ground staff staged a similar walkout at the airline, which normally operates about 2,000 flights a day.

© Cheapflights Ltd (Creative Commons image: loop_oh / Flickr)

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