Two days after ending its most recent strike against Lufthansa’s short- and medium-haul operations, the German pilots union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) said it has extend its strike for long-haul and cargo pilots through the end of the day today, forcing the beleaguered carrier to cancel 37 of its 72 scheduled long-haul flights out of Frankfurt and Munich.
The strike, which began at 2 a.m., Central European Time, is scheduled to end at 22.59 p.m. The amount of disruption the strike will cause on airfreight shipments is not yet known, but Lufthansa Cargo generally ships about half if its freight via long-haul belly cargo space. About 150,000 passengers were also affected by the walk-out.
Lufthansa Cargo said all 19 of its main-deck freighters will complete scheduled service, with the exception of six cargo flights, the airline said. Other flights were be rescheduled to fly a few hours before or after the strike period. Some volunteer pilots were also called in to staff the flights.
Today’s action is VC’s tenth strike it has coordinated against Lufthansa this year alone and the third involving Lufthansa Cargo pilots. The other two were a 48-hour strike in October and a 21-hour action that affected some cargo pilots on Tuesday. In most cases, the issue involved disputes over early retirement benefits for newly hired pilots.
On Wednesday, Lufthansa offered to go into mediation with VC to avoid future walk-outs during the busy holiday season. “We cannot keep doing this for the next year or two, we need to sit down and find a solution,” Lufthansa spokeswoman Barbara Schaedler told Reuters.
VC responded via a press release saying that it will consider Lufthansa’s offer during a meeting early next week.