Hundreds of Lufthansa flights cancelled in Germany as pilots, cabin crew walk out

FRANKFURT — Hundreds of Lufthansa flights were cancelled on Thursday as pilots and flight attendants went on strike at Germany's largest airline, which has for years struggled to rein in costs at its core brand.

The company said the industrial action, called over pension benefits and other grievances, had caused close to 800 flights to be cancelled, disrupting travel plans of about 100,000 passengers.

This "affects our passengers extremely harshly and disproportionately", the company said, adding that it expects a return to a largely normal schedule on Friday.

Departure boards for Frankfurt and Munich showed most Lufthansa flights were cancelled for the day, including to many overseas destinations.

Strikes called as film fest, security conference open

At Frankfurt airport, Germany's largest, the situation was calm in the morning because many Lufthansa passengers, notified of the cancellations, did not show up.

Jonathan Ruf, a passenger traveling with Lufthansa's domestic rival Condor, said he had considered booking on Lufthansa but would probably not do so for his next flight, because of the risk it could be affected by another strike.

Marvin Kleist, another passenger in Frankfurt not booked on a Lufthansa flight, said the walkout would make everything a bit more expensive due to the unions' demands.

"And if that were the case everywhere, nothing would be affordable anymore at some point," he said.

Lufthansa earlier said it would try to rebook passengers on its other airlines or partner airlines.

The walkout, organized by pilots' union VC and flight attendants' union UFO, comes as the Berlinale film festival starts in the German capital, Berlin, on Thursday, and politicians and military officials gather for the Munich Security Conference, which will open on Friday.

Pilots are in conflict with Lufthansa's core airline and its cargo division over pensions.

Their union declared readiness to strike after a ballot last year to pressure the company into granting more generous retirement benefits. Intermittent talks have taken place since then without success.

Lufthansa, which has described its core airline as a "problem child", says there is no financial leeway for the demands.

Separately, the UFO union of flight attendants called on its members at Lufthansa's CityLine subsidiary to strike over the planned shutdown of its flight operations and "the employer's continued refusal to negotiate a collective social plan."

"The simultaneous industrial action by pilots is a coincidence, but one that is welcome," said UFO union representative Harry Jaeger.

"We want to annoy management, not passengers," he added. — Reuters