Lufthansa has put on a special flight schedule as a two-day strike causes hundreds of flight cancellations.
The walkout, which started today for 48 hours, will affect all short-haul services from Germany today and short, medium and long-haul flights from Germany on Wednesday.
The row centres around pay increases, with Lufthansa’s offer of 2.5 per cent described as “inadequate” by the pilots union. It is calling for a 3.7 per cent pay rise for 5,400 pilots dating back to 2012.
For Tuesday, November 29, Lufthansa has cancelled 816 flights affecting around 82,000 passengers, while Wednesday’s action will lead to 890 cancellations hitting almost 100,000 travellers.
Carsten Spohr, chief executive of Lufthansa, has said that the future of the airline would be threatened if it met the pilots' demands because it would make many routes unprofitable.
"We stand no chance to survive," he said. "There is no more leeway for even better offers when escalation is what is wanted, as opposed to a solution."
Travellers should access LH.com to check the status of their flight. Lufthansa is notifying all passengers that have provided contact information in their customer profiles of any cancellations by e-mail or SMS.
The announcement concerns Lufthansa flights only, with those operated by CityLine, Germanwings, Eurowings, Air Dolomiti, Austrian Airlines, SWISS and Brussels Airlines operating as normal.
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