FRANKFURT, Germany: All Lufthansa aircraft were returning to the skies as scheduled today, the German company said following major disruptions during a week of strike action.
“It’s restarted as planned,” a spokeswoman told dpa in the wake of thousands of flight cancellations throughout the week.
On Friday alone, around 650 flights were scratched at Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s main aviation hub, and more than 400 at Munich Airport.
Together with the cabin crew union UFO, the pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) disrupted operations at Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and Cityline for five days.
Lufthansa’s low-cost airline Eurowings was also affected by the strike action on two days.
On Thursday, the company reacted to the industrial action by immediately suspending flight operations at Cityline. The cutback was also attributed to high fuel costs for the regional carrier’s ageing fleet.
The company said Cityline’s 24 passenger aircraft and three cargo aircraft have been taken out of service. It had previously operated feeder flights to the hubs in Frankfurt and Munich under Lufthansa flight numbers.
The pilots’ union criticised the shutdown as contradictory and deeply unsettling for the affected employees as they fear for their livelihoods.
“On the one hand, a major crisis is being cited as justification for removing capacity from the market,” said VC President, Andreas Pinheiro.
“On the other hand, it is simultaneously being examined whether other group companies – such as Lufthansa Classic itself – could take over these routes, even though, according to management, they are even less profitable.” – BERNAMA-dpa
