German airline Lufthansa has cancelled around 800 flights on Friday – including dozens serving the UK – due to a pilots’ strike
(Picture: Bayne Stanley/Alamy Stock Photo/PA)Thousands of British travellers who’re booked to fly to Germany on Friday will be disrupted as the airline Lufthansa has cancelled 800 flights due to a pilots’ strike.
The German airline has cancelled approximately 800 flights that were scheduled for Friday, including dozens due to serve the UK, meaning around 7,000 passengers booked onto the carrier’s UK flights are set to be disrupted.
Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), a trade union representing Lufthansa’s pilots, announced the walkout on Thursday in a row over pay, accusing bosses of failing to improve on their previous offer.
Matthias Baier, a spokesman for the union, said: “Aware of our responsibility for companies and guests, we wanted to leave no stone unturned and offered another negotiation date despite an inadequate offer and failed negotiations.
“We did not receive a sufficient offer today either. This is sobering and a missed opportunity.
“The negotiations have failed.
“The only thing left for us to do is to reinforce our demands with a labour dispute.”
Here’s everything you need to know about which UK flights have been cancelled.
Which UK Lufthansa flights have been cancelled?
Around 7,000 passengers booked on the carrier’s UK flights will be disrupted.
All 34 of Lufthansa’s services connecting Heathrow with Frankfurt and Munich are grounded, in addition to 11 flights between Manchester and Germany.
Affected passengers are entitled to be flown to their final destination as soon as possible.
They may also be entitled to compensation, as consumer groups do not believe cancellations due to strikes by airline employees fall under the “extraordinary circumstances” exemption.
Why are Lufthansa pilots striking?
Lufthansa said it has offered to raise pilots’ monthly base salaries by 900 euros (£777), and claimed the union’s demands “would increase payroll costs by more than 40 per cent”.
The pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) are demanding a 5.5 per cent pay rise this year for its more than 5,000 pilots, as well as automatic inflation adjustments for 2023, but said the discussions have failed.
The airline’s labour director Michael Niggemann said: “We cannot understand VC’s call for a strike.
“The management has made a very good and socially balanced offer – despite the continuing burdens of the Covid crisis and uncertain prospects for the global economy.
“This escalation comes at the expense of many thousands of customers.”
