Shortly before the planned uprising by the Verdi union at German airports, Lufthansa announced another measure that could affect numerous travelers. The airline is canceling around 34,000 flights in the summer. With this step, Lufthansa wants to prevent chaotic conditions like last summer.
Due to the ongoing shortage of staff, Lufthansa intends to significantly reduce its flight offering in the summer. The core brand Lufthansa is canceling around 34,000 flights or ten percent of the offer at the hubs in Frankfurt and Munich, reported the “Wirtschaftswoche”. A Lufthansa spokesman confirmed this and explained that despite countermeasures, the industry continues to suffer from bottlenecks and staff shortages, especially in Europe. The cancellations should ensure stability in the company. The magazine reported, citing insiders, that there could also be flight cancellations at the subsidiary airlines Eurowings and Swiss.
Last year, the airline had to scale back the summer flight schedule because the increase in personnel in air traffic was not expected to keep pace with the strong recovery in travel demand. That had helped reduce chaos at airports. Nevertheless, there were still long waiting times for passengers, delays and flight cancellations. Thousands of vacationers missed their flights.
The Verdi union has also warned that the staff shortage has not yet been resolved. She calls for better pay in collective bargaining so that more workers can be recruited. Verdi is putting pressure on this from the early hours of Friday morning with a 24-hour warning strike by ground and security staff at seven major German airports. Air traffic in Germany will be largely paralyzed as a result.
The airports in Frankfurt am Main, Munich, Hamburg and Stuttgart have announced that they will stop regular flight operations on Friday due to the strike by the Verdi union. At the airports in Dortmund, Hanover and Bremen, Verdi also called for warning strikes on Friday. The airport association ADV expects a total of around 2,340 flight cancellations. According to the association, more than 295,000 passengers will be affected.
