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Cape Town - More than two thirds of all Lufthansa Group flights are taking place according to a special schedule introduced on Wednesday.
This was after the start of a strike by the pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC).
The group airlines Eurowings, Germanwings, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Air Dolomiti and Brussels Airlines are not affected by the strike. The pilots of Lufthansa Cargo have also not been called on to strike.
A special flight schedule for Thursday was also created as VC announced an extension of the strike by an additional 24 hours.
Lufthansa said in a statement that 2 088 flights out of a total of roughly 3 000 flights of the group will be operating as planned. On Thursday it is expected, however, that a total of 912 flights - including 82 intercontinental flights - will be cancelled due to the extended strike.
Overall, more than 215 000 passengers will be affected by about 1 800 flight cancellations on the two strike days.
Lufthansa said it has called on VC once more to look for a joint solution to the labour dispute instead of rushing into an additional escalation.
“VC’s demand for an increase in compensation by over 20% is far greater than increases other groups of employees have received. It is not understandable why the union is demanding the biggest raise for the group of employees that is already paid the most,” says Bettina Volkens, chief officer of corporate human resources and legal Affairs of the Lufthansa Group.
Customers whose flights have been cancelled due to the strike have the one-time option to transfer or cancel their booking at no cost. In addition to this, all passengers that are travelling with the group airlines Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, SWISS and Brussels Airlines have the one-time option of transferring their booking for free, regardless of whether their flight has been cancelled or not.
Lufthansa said all its customers should to take the precaution of checking the status of their flight before travelling to the airport.
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