Due to a Lufthansa strike, 18 flights are expected to be canceled at Düsseldorf Airport. Connections between Düsseldorf and Munich as well as Düsseldorf and Frankfurt are affected, as a spokeswoman for the airport announced on Friday morning. 26 Lufthansa flights were actually planned for Friday. The strike has been going on since midnight and is expected to last a day. Passengers were advised to switch to the train or flights on another day.
The background: Lufthansa is canceling almost its entire program because of the announced pilot strike on Friday. Around 800 flights with an estimated 130,000 affected passengers are therefore canceled at the Munich and Frankfurt hubs, as the company announced on Thursday.
The union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) had called on the pilots of the core company and the freight subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo to go on a day-long strike. The reason for this is the failed negotiations on a new collective wage agreement from the point of view of the union. According to the VC, salary increases of 5.5 percent in the current year and an automated adjustment for inflation from the coming year.
According to its own statements, Lufthansa recently offered an increase in the monthly basic salary by a flat rate of 900 euros. Over an 18-month period, this would result in gains of 18 percent for junior graduates and 5 percent for senior captains.
(This article has been updated)