German airline company Lufthansa canceled almost 900 flights on Wednesday and ditched another 912 scheduled for Thursday after pilots started a two-day strike in a pay dispute.
The Cockpit union at first called members out on a 24-hour strike Wednesday. Late Tuesday night, after Lufthansa attempted and failed to have courts obstruct the walkout, it stated that they would likewise strike on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the airline canceled 876 of the Lufthansa group’s planned 3,000 flights, among them 51 long-haul flights, and stated that around 100,000 travelers were affected.
It later scratched 912 of approximately 3,000 arranged flights scheduled for Thursday, consisting of 82 long-haul flights, and stated the cancellations would impact about 115,000 travelers. The airline company expressed “complete incomprehension” at Cockpit’s decision to expand the strike.
Still more cancellations were anticipated for Friday, after the union informed late Wednesday that all pilots flying short-haul routes would remain off the job that day as well.
Other Lufthansa group airlines such as Eurowings, Swiss and Austrian Airlines aren’t impacted by the strike. Lufthansa stated that Swiss and Austrian Airlines raised their capacity on flights to Germany, utilizing larger aircrafts than usual.
The recent strike by Cockpit is the 14th since April 2014 in the long-running conflict. It comes as Lufthansa reorganizes to fulfill increasing competitors from Gulf airline firms and European budget plan carriers.
