FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Almost all Lufthansa flights on the large departure board have been canceled—the crew strike is having a significant impact at Germany's largest airport in Frankfurt. A long queue of people has formed in front of the rebooking counters.
"I'm stranded here and my luggage has been lost," says a passenger who is traveling from Houston in the USA to Seville in Spain. He urgently needs to get there to attend a wedding. "This is a big problem." Now he hopes that he can get help at one of the counters. "At the very least, I have to get to Madrid," he says.
"I don't know what to do now"
A man, who flew overnight from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia to Frankfurt and needs to continue on to Norway, expresses his frustration—according to Lufthansa, this will not be possible until the following day at the earliest. "I need a shower, I have to eat and sleep, and I'm sick, I need a doctor. I don't know what to do now," he says.
He needs to work the next day. A strike, he says, is an internal problem at Lufthansa, and he doesn't understand why he has to bear the consequences, since he has paid for his ticket. "This is poor service."
Other passengers are luckier: they learn that they will be able to continue their journeys as planned. A young woman on her way to New York smiles with relief and heads to check in. Likewise, two women who want to fly to Venice find out that, despite the strike, they can still travel, much to their relief. They had initially been very concerned, as they had previously been affected by a Lufthansa strike.
Since midnight, around 4,800 Lufthansa pilots and Lufthansa Cargo pilots have been called to strike. In addition, nearly 20,000 employees from the cabin crew union Ufo have been called to a warning strike.
Union emphasizes strong willingness to take industrial action
Ufo wage expert Harry Jaeger says at the airport that Lufthansa is partly deploying management staff capable of flying. The strike is proceeding as expected. The pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit, based on initial feedback, believes there is a high willingness among its members to continue industrial action—and did not rule out further strikes.
Hundreds of Lufthansa departures and arrivals have been canceled in Frankfurt, although Lufthansa did not initially provide exact numbers. Some flights are still operating to destinations in Europe and overseas. An announcement at the airport drew attention to "irregularities in Lufthansa's operations" and advised passengers to check their phones for further information.
According to an estimate by the airport association ADV, more than 460 flights with 69,000 affected passengers will be canceled nationwide due to the all-day strike./isa/DP/zb
