Lufthansa pilots continue strike
Keystone-SDA
Lufthansa pilots continued to strike on Friday. The Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and Lufthansa CityLine companies downed tools again.
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According to the Lufthansa Executive Board, Lufthansa CityLine will never take off again but will be closed early on Saturday. The cut was justified by high paraffin costs and the costs of the strikes that have been going on for days.
On Friday, around 650 of 1,337 planned take-offs and landings were again cancelled at the Frankfurt hub alone, operator Fraport reported. The figures relate to all airlines at the site, but the cancellations are largely attributable to the Lufthansa strike.
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Connections to Switzerland were also affected. At Zurich Airport, six departures and the same number of arrivals to and from Frankfurt were cancelled, a spokeswoman told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-SDA on Friday. A total of four flights were cancelled at Geneva Airport. One connection to Frankfurt and one to Munich were affected.
Union criticised
The Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union had sharply criticised the Lufthansa Group’s tightened austerity measures and questioned the justification. “The geopolitical reasons given do not appear convincing from our point of view, as no competitor is currently taking capacity out of the market to this extent,” said its president Andreas Pinheiro.
The management appears to be prepared to accept considerable operational and economic damage in order to enforce its wage policy, Pinheiro said.
This is the fifth strike day in a row. Pilots were called to strike on four days this week and flight attendants on two days. The collective bargaining for Lufthansa and cargo pilots is about higher employer contributions to company pensions, while CityLine pilots are fighting for higher salaries.
Adapted from German by AI/ts
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