Lufthansa Canceled Over 800 Flights

Feb 22, 2010 Posted by brindils on Feb 22, 2010 in Business | 0 comments

Lufthansa Canceled Over 800 Flights

German airline Lufthansa canceled about 800 flights, almost half its daily total, after a lot more than 4,000 of its pilots began a four-day walkout.

The airline, Europe’s biggest by sales, said that despite the strike organized by the Cockpit pilots union, it was maintaining numerous domestic flights and short-haul routes across Europe though many of its long-haul flights to the U.S., such as New York and Denver, were canceled.

Other flights towards the U.S., such as Newark, New Jersey, Dallas and Chicago were scheduled Monday, as had been flights to destinations in Africa, South America and Asia. “Usually we have 1,800 flights a day,” Deutsche Lufthansa AG stated early Monday.

“For today, we foresee about 1,000 flights planned, but there might be more flights that could be canceled during the day,” the airline warned. It offers some 160 long-haul flights to destinations worldwide.

Pilots for Lufthansa Cargo and Lufthansa’s their low-budget subsidiaries, Germanwings, are also taking part within the strike.

Germanwings, based at Cologne-Bonn Airport, said it was operating many flights over the four-day period to destinations such as Britain, Greece, Spain, Bulgaria, Italy and Croatian, among others.

Lufthansa, based in Cologne, owns or holds significant stakes in airlines including Swiss International Airlines, Austrian Airlines, JetBlue of the U.S. and Britain’s BMI. Those are not affected.

The pilots are seeking increased work security and want German labor problems to apply to Lufthansa pilots hired abroad, in an effort to prevent their jobs from migrating to neighboring countries with cheaper conditions.

Lufthansa said that was not being considered. “Not one job has been moved. No Lufthansa pilot’s work has been scrapped and no work cuts are planned at the moment,” stated Christoph Franz, Lufthansa’s deputy chairman.

The airline said it was trying to rebook travelers on partner airlines or trains. Travelers unable to be rescheduled are getting reimbursed for their tickets, it said.

The airline reached out to travelers on the web, too, posting a strike schedule on its Web site and offering updates on whether flights were canceled or not on its Twitter feed. The airline, Germany’s largest, estimated the strike could cost it some euro25 million ($34 million) per day.