Business
Lufthansa pilots will hold a eight-hour strike at Munich airport on Wednesday, union Vereinigung Cockpit said on Tuesday, the third strike by the German airline's pilots within two weeks. Reuters writes:
The pilots are seeking to increase the pressure on Lufthansa in negotiations over an early retirement scheme.
They held a strike at its budget carrier Germanwings at the end of August, followed by a walkout at Frankfurt last week.
The proposed strike at Munich, Lufthansa's biggest airport behind Frankfurt, will run from 0800-1600 GMT, the union said. While Lufthansa's lucrative long-haul flights were spared from last week's Frankfurt walkout, the union said on Tuesday that this time the strike would affect all flights leaving Munich airport.
Lufthansa said it could not yet say which flights would be affected and described the strike as "incomprehensible".
Deutsche Lufthansa said Friday it has set up hundreds of cots for stranded passengers in Frankfurt airport as pilots prepared another strike in a long-running conflict over retirement benefits. The Wall Street Journal reports:
Lufthansa plans to ground more than 200 flights at its main passenger airline, upending the plans of 25,000 passengers, after pilots said they would walk out on short- and medium-haul trips scheduled from Frankfurt between 1700 and 2300 local time.
The German flag-carrier will cancel some flights to other German and European destinations starting already at 1330 local time, and most flights as of 1600. Long-haul flights and flights from Munich aren't affected, the airline said.
"The timing in particular is unacceptable," said Lufthansa board member Kay Kratky of the Friday evening strikes, which will hit commuters, holiday and business travelers.
The airline booked 2,200 hotel rooms for passengers as a precaution. For transit passengers who can't enter the country for visa reasons, Lufthansa said it set up 500 cots in the airport, which is Europe's third-busiest.
