Lufthansa pilots extend strike, 1000 Wednesday flights cancelled

New Delhi: With the pilot union of German carrier Lufthansa extending its one-day strike of Tuesday to Wednesday also, the airline has cancelled about a third of its 3,000 flight affecting about 1.4 lakh passengers.

In India, it has cancelled LH 765 Mumbai-Munich that was to depart on Tuesday night-Wednesday morning. It expects all its six other flights and those of group airline Swiss and Austrian to leave as per schedule on Wednesday morning. The airline had cancelled half of the eight India-Germany flights that were to operate on Tuesday morning.

“The Lufthansa Group had some 3,000 flights planned for Wednesday. Of these, 1,520 flights with 180,000 travellers booked on them were to have been operated by Lufthansa. And 1,350 of these are short- and medium-haul services. Despite the strike action, over 500 Lufthansa flights will be able to operate tomorrow. The services of Germanwings, SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines are not affected, and will operate as scheduled,” the airline said in a statement.

The Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union has asked its members to take strike action on Wednesday too.

“Any customers whose flight is cancelled as a result of the strike will be able to rebook or to cancel their booking free of charge or penalty. All travellers holding a Lufthansa ticket for a flight from, to or via Frankfurt, Munich or Dusseldorf on 9 September will also be able to make one free rebooking online,” the airline said.

Lufthansa’s long-haul network will also see some cancellations Wednesday with 52 of the 176 long-haul services planned cancelled. The German mega carrier is now planning to take action against the pilots’ union. Lufthansa has resolved that it “will submit a claim for compensatory damages against the Vereinigung Cockpit to the Frankfurt Labor Court.”