Lufthansa has cancelled more than 1.000 flights today due to a one-day walkout by ground staff, affecting almost all of the carrier’s operations to the former Yugoslavia, as well as Croatia Airlines’ services to Germany. More than 130.000 passengers have been impacted, Lufthansa said, adding that there could be a few more cancellations and delays on Thursday and Friday, after the end of the strike. The industrial action was called by labour union Verdi in pursuit of a 9.5% pay claim. Overall, some 80% of the airline’s flights have been cancelled today. Staff shortages have already forced Lufthansa and its subsidiaries to cancel hundreds of flights this month.
Lufthansa’s biggest market in the former Yugoslavia over the summer - Croatia - will witness over twenty flight cancellations today from almost all major cities. In addition, its Star Alliance partner Croatia Airlines has also been forced to halt services to Germany as its aircraft are handled by Lufthansa in both Frankfurt and Munich. Overall, Lufthansa has cancelled three of its return flights to Zagreb, two each to Split, Dubrovnik and Zadar, as well as one return service to Pula and Rijeka. On other hand, Croatia Airlines has been forced to shelve five return services from Zagreb, two from Split and one from Dubrovnik. In total, 38 flights have been cancelled today between Croatia and Germany.
In Serbia, Lufthansa has cancelled all but one of its planned operations to Belgrade, including two return flights from both Frankfurt and one return flight from Munich, although one return service from the Bavarian capital will operate to Belgrade. Air Serbia will maintain its service between Belgrade and Frankfurt today, as well as other German cities including Dusseldorf, Berlin and Stuttgart. Wizz Air plans to operate its flights from the Serbian capital to Dortmund and Hamburg. In Ljubljana, Lufthansa has cancelled all of its services for today, which include two return flights from Frankfurt and one from Munich. Similarly, its service between Frankfurt and Sarajevo has also been cancelled today. Wizz Air’s operations from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital to Hamburg, Cologne and Dortmund are expected to operate as per schedule. The German national carrier has no flights scheduled for Tivat today, nor does Air Montenegro operate between Podgorica and Frankfurt on Wednesdays.
Good for them. Lufthansa was bragging about repaying their loan early, about chasing major profits and so on. Inflation in Germany is getting out of hand, everything has become just so expensive that it is becoming difficult to get by. Even if they get their increase, it will still be less than inflation, meaning they are going to live as before, not better.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good thing that salaries are not an issue in former Yugoslav countries, as there are no strikes there, everyone is happy with their standard of living.
DeleteFor the standard of living, the salaries at the airlines seem to be fine. The last time there was a strike at an ex-Yu airline was 6 years ago at OU.
DeleteSo just because salaries are lower in ex YU we are not allowed to comment on today's topic which is salaries at LH? Also, in our region salaries might be lower but so is standard of living.
DeleteSo, what is the average ground handling staff salary in the ex-Yugoslav region? May I point out that it's not that cabin crew which is on strike, but ground staff.
DeleteBEG supervisors make around 80 to 85.000 Dinars per month.
DeleteSad.
DeleteThis just goes to show how reliant Croatia Airlines is on Lufthansa.
ReplyDeleteThey have more cancelled flights from ZAG to Germany than Lufthansa.
DeleteWhat else is new
Delete38 flights cancelled from Croatia today because of the strike..
DeleteWow
DeleteThat's a lot of capacity
DeleteAlmost 7000 seats actually.
DeleteUnited Airlines, Air Canada and LOT in the same boat. Handled by LH.
DeleteJU must be packed!
ReplyDeleteYes they are sold out on German flights today.
DeleteAnd Slovenia is paying them. They have been canceling that late evening for like two weeks already and now this.
ReplyDeleteNot only that, LH is canceling every single evening flight to LJU and then ferry the (empty) aircraft at the same time to be ready for the morning LJU-FRA. :-)
DeleteWhat is the rationale of operating an empty ferry flight with crew but without passengers? Absolute madness
DeleteWonder how this is acceptable considering everyone is obsessed with CO2 emissions and green policies.
DeleteWhen it's a company from Germany then it doesn't count
Delete10:16 +1000 - it has always been this way between Western Europe and Ex-Yu
DeleteAt last there is no impact on SKP and PRN 😃
ReplyDeleteThe one time that's a good thing
DeleteThis airline has become an absolute mess since Covid. Service levels have deteriorated badly, flights are constantly late, frequent cancellations...
ReplyDeleteAgree completely. Have flown with them regularly including throughout the pandemic and afterwards. LH has become a terrible airline. On top of frequent cancellations, their flights are often delayed, their crew has an attitude as if they are going to beat you up and there is literally no more service on board of any kind.
DeleteOh but LH has an image of divinity in the eyes of many flyers in ex-Yu
DeleteLH is racing quickly to the bottom.
DeleteSo, what you're saying is, they are making sure their service is more in line with their Star Alliance partner United.
DeleteWhat a shame
ReplyDeleteWonder if affected passengers will be transferred onto other airlines?
ReplyDeleteDoubt it very much due to the sheer size of cancellations.
DeleteSome small portion will. Had a flight with them for today CPH-MUC-MLA, got rerouted for tomorrow CPH-CTA with SK and then CTA-MLA with KM.
DeleteWhat was the situation like at the airport in MUC?
DeleteOh sorry I didn't read carefully that they rerouted you to SK. I thought you wrote they rerouted your return flight tomorrow.
Delete@9.51. I wrote below. The airports are quiet. PAX didn't show up. Most LH counters closed.
DeleteYeah, I wouldn't have accepted travelling via MUC or FRA today even with other airlines :)
DeleteNot good at all
ReplyDeleteAnd in top travel period. Crazy
ReplyDeleteIt could not be a worse time. School summer holidays begin in Germany tomorrow and many people and families were supposed to fly already today.
DeleteDemand finally recovers after two b years and then airlines and staff can't deal with it.
ReplyDeleteInflation is the problem .
DeleteYou can not pay anymore these low wages if money become worth less ..
And what will happen with passengers on today's flights, nothing is mentioned in the article
ReplyDeleteThey will ptobably be rebooked on LH and LH Group airlines in the next few days or issued a refund. I doubt that they have dealt with the majority of customers.
DeleteYes even on their website it says most customers won't be contacted and to just wait.
DeleteHahahahah really? That's brilliant but then again Germans are generally rude and not made for customer service.
DeleteNothing new. My KLM flight from AMS to PRG was recently cancelled. Got info 12 hours before flight. Email said I would be contacted. I was not. Impossible to get through call centre. In the end, went to the airport the next morning to the ticketing desk (which doesn't bother opening until 8AM despite hundreds of cancelled flights) and got rebooked on another airline.
DeleteJU zadovoljno trlja ruke,letovi za Nemačku danas rasprodati.
ReplyDeleteZasto da ne trljaju ruke?
DeleteOne way ticket with Lufthansa BEG-FRA for tomorrow is 700 EUR, crazy. 200 EUR with JU
ReplyDeleteBut this could be part of their new crazy policy to get people not to fly. On many of their short haul routes tkts are now 600 EUR
DeleteAgree with you, everything to stop people flying look like "new normal" although personally not give a s... About "New normal"
DeleteIt's scary when airlines themselves are actively discouraging people from flying.
DeleteLong time ago decided not to use services of Lufthansa as find them very cold and corporate..I always chosing KLM very reliable service and crew it's going mile extra so Lufthansa it's long time ago not in my radar.
ReplyDeleteLong time ago stop using Lufthansa. KLM has far superior service and service form Belgrade. Reliable and crew it's excellent. Am afraid Lufthansa it's in on road to disaster.
ReplyDeleteForgot they flew to Tivat. How many weekly flights do they have?
ReplyDelete1 weekly from FRA and MUC.
DeleteNot going to be a pretty sight at Frankfurt and Munich airports today.
ReplyDeleteActually the airports are empty. Lufthansa cancelled the flights in advance so passengers didn't show up. At least that's what they are showing on TV in Germany.
DeleteThanks. Interesting to know
DeleteAwful company with awfully high prices that for some reason thinks it's the best in the world.
ReplyDeleteI wonder on which basis they decided the flights that will actually operate today. Anyone know?
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming they keep flights to LH Group and Star hubs to transfer passengers.
DeleteIf that were the case then they would have kept flights to Zagreb or at last let OU fly to Germany today.
DeleteTerrible
ReplyDeleteAnd what happens if demand of the union are not met?
ReplyDeleteThey will strike again soon. Don't demands will be met.
Delete*doubt
DeleteLufthansa needs to be shut down.
ReplyDeleteA bit extreme. Strikes happen all across the industry and across many airlines from time to time.
DeleteSituation has been very bad at SAS too with their pilot strike.
DeleteThe SAS pilot strike has ended and an agreement has been signed.
DeleteFinally
DeleteI feel sorry for all the transfer passengers to/from ex-Yu. Their travel plans are ruined.
ReplyDeleteyes,
Deletebut as a passenger I couldn't care less what the official reason is; we got cancelled twice this month; (a "hybrid carrier" was not allowed to use all its capacity and we were kicked; a LLC had unexpected staff shortage (surprisingly corona) and all got kicked; both did not pay compensation so far)
it is a mess generally those days
They are going to have to pay a lot of compensation.
ReplyDeleteno, they will not have to pay compensations to passengers; just return the fare in most cases as they can not rebook them.
DeleteThe union announced the strike intentionally in such a way that compensations are not to be payed.
Interesting. How did they avoid it?
DeleteStrikes are counted as force majeure if announced on short notice and no compensation is due.
DeleteHopefully we don't see a repeat of this during the summer.
ReplyDeleteWill they do aircraft ferry flights to ex-Yu cities where they have morning departures tomorrow?
ReplyDeleteWon't they just use planes stuck at the ex-Yu airports as today's flights have been cancelled?
DeleteNo, because they cancelled last night's flights too.
DeleteInterestingly, Lufthansa has its own ground staff at the airports, I thought that today it is mostly outsourced or airport staff.
ReplyDeleteThey have everything their own, including consultancy company that advises airlines to outsource everything to them :)
DeleteIs BEG-MUC the only flight to the ex YU that LH is operating today?
ReplyDeleteD-AIZH an A320
DeleteFlight is not operational. It is cancelled.
DeleteHuh? The A320 literally just landed at BEG, you can see it on FR24. It's spending the night in BEG and returns tomorrow
DeleteYes, it is the only LH flight that operated today in ex-Yu.
DeleteWhat is the outcome of the strike? Have their demands been met?
ReplyDeleteNo. It was a warning strike.
DeleteMore losses for OU.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that they went ahead with the one flight from Munich to Belgrade.
ReplyDeleteWonder how much today cost LH.
ReplyDeleteI was there last year, to Hurgada. There was line but all went ok. This year i saw some constructioning. Byt u went yesterday to sea, with bus. You should see how is there, they close you door since no more olace, wait for next one 1h. I was planning Aman, but they dont fly there anymore.
ReplyDelete