“Of course it takes some time until the planes are back at all 200 locations that the Lufthansa network comprises around the world and the crews need to be positioned again, too,” Lufthansa spokesman Klaus Walther told Reuters TV on Tuesday. Travelers are also waiting for news on when cabin crew at British Airways will plan a work stoppage after the union Unite voted on Monday in favor of industrial action to protest cost cuts. British Airways wants three-quarters of its crew to accept a pay freeze this year, along with other cost-cutting measures.
This is the union’s second attempt at industrial action after a court forced the workers to abandon plans for a 12-day strike over Christmas that would have affected a million travelers. The pilots’ strike at Lufthansa, which was meant to last until Thursday, caused about 900 flights to be cancelled on Monday, causing travel chaos and leaving thousands of travelers around the world stranded. Workers fear that the airline, which aims to cut 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion) of costs by 2011, wants to expand the foreign units while shrinking “Lufthansa-Classic” because pilots and cabin crew make less money outside of Germany. Lufthansa shares were up 0.41 percent and British Airways shares were up 0.39 percent.
Working it out
In a hastily arranged court hearing, Lufthansa and pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) on Monday agreed to try to work out their differences after the airline had asked the court to help it halt the strike. “We are cautiously optimistic that both parties will find a solution without further strike measures,” said BHF Bank analyst Nils Machemehl, adding that he does not expect a resulting compromise to be a major burden for Lufthansa.
Cabin crew union UFO had jumped on the bandwagon, threatening a warning strike if Lufthansa failed to engage in wage negotiations.
In France, airlines had to cancel half of the short- and medium-haul flights at Paris’s Orly airport and a quarter of such flights nixed at the international Charles de Gaulle airport, as the French workers went on strike. The French unions have called for a five-day strike to protest against plans to modernize air traffic, signed by Germany, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland. The unions fear the reforms will lead to layoffs.
