Posts
Lufthansa
strike: 26,000 stranded, hundreds of flights canceled
Lufthansa,
Germany’s biggest airline, has canceled around 350 flights in
Frankfurt, Berlin and Munich, leaving 26,000 passengers stranded.
Crew will strike for a further 24 hours on Friday in a row that is
causing millions of euros in losses.
RT,
4
September, 2012
Cabin
crew members in Frankfurt and Berlin and Munich are protesting over
their pay and conditions.
Germany's
Independent Flight Attendants Organization (UFO in German), the labor
union that represents the majority of Lufthansa's 18,000 cabin crew
members, is demanding a 5 per cent increase in salaries from the
company, along with guarantees against outsourcing and the use of
temporary employees.
In
return, the air carrier has offered a 3.5 per cent salary increase –
in return for longer working hours – a deal the employees have
refused.
Frankfurt,
the third-busiest airport in Europe, remained closed for several
hours because of the strike. Berlin’s Tegel airport has also been
affected.
UFO
members are also calling for the country’s second-largest airport,
Munich, to join the strike at 11:00 GMT.
Lufthansa
has not yet given any estimates of the damage triggered by the
congestion in Berlin and Munich.
The
air carrier has announced that only a handful of long-distance
flights will be affected by the move. Around half of short- and
medium-distance flights have been canceled, though.
The
carrier is currently cutting its budget by 1.5 billion euro, a
measure designed to fight rising fuel costs and competition from
low-cost and Gulf airlines.
This
strike comes days after another massive walk-out was organized at
Frankfurt airport, bringing the facility to a standstill and also
leaving thousands of passengers stranded.
Other
stories on aviation (with thanks to Rice Farmer) -
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.