Lufthansa restores schedule after dual strikes cancelled nearly 800 flights

One-day strikes by pilots and cabin crew forced Lufthansa to cancel close to 800 flights on Thursday (Feb. 12), disrupting travel for roughly 100,000 passengers but Germany's largest airline says it expects a largely normal schedule to resume Friday (Feb. 13).

The walkouts were called by two unions: pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) and flight attendants' union UFO, which each launched separate 24-hour work stoppages announced on Tuesday (Feb. 10).

Departure boards at Lufthansa's main hubs in Frankfurt and Munich showed most of the carrier's flights scrubbed for the day, including services to numerous overseas destinations. 

Frankfurt airport was notably calm Thursday morning, as many passengers had been notified of cancellations in advance and didn't show up.

Lufthansa said it was working to rebook affected travellers onto flights operated by partner airlines and other carriers in the Lufthansa Group, including Swiss, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines.

The two disputes are unrelated but coincided. 

VC called for walkouts on Germany-departing flights in an ongoing conflict over pension benefits for pilots at Lufthansa's core airline and its Lufthansa Cargo division. 

The union held a strike ballot last year, and intermittent talks since then have failed to produce an agreement, with the airline maintaining it lacks financial room to meet the demands.

UFO, meanwhile, called on members to walk out on flights departing Frankfurt and Munich, as well as services operated by Lufthansa CityLine, over the planned shutdown of CityLine's flight operations.

The disruption landed on a high-profile week in Germany, coinciding with the opening of the Berlinale film festival in Berlin on Thursday and the Munich Security Conference, which opens Friday.

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