Lufthansa cancels 290 flights on day 1 of week-long cabin crew strike

Lufthansa has canceled 290 out of 3,000 flights—including 15 intercontinental services—on the first day of a week-long strike by its cabin crew, which is represented by the UFO union.

According to Lufthansa, 37,000 passengers have been affected.

UFO called for the strike in Frankfurt and Dusseldorf after long-running (December 2013) talks over pay, retirement benefits and working conditions failed this week.

Lufthansa Passenger Airlines CEO Karl Ulrich Garnadt told ATW in Vienna, “As Lufthansa Classic (mainline), we don’t have the right cost-structure to enable us to grow again at our Frankfurt and Munich hubs.” Without finding a solution with its pilots and flight attendants over pay, retirement benefits and working conditions, further growth for Lufthansa will be not possible, he said.

“We offered our flight attendants a solution that is exclusive in this industry. But the union declined to accept it. I have no idea what else we can do as Lufthansa management. For this strike, I have no understanding,” Garnadt said.

On Thursday afternoon, Lufthansa said it had agreed to all UFO union demands on pension provisions for its cabin personnel and had offered to meet all UFO demands on Nov. 2 regarding retirement and transitional pension provisions. UFO also rejected this latest management offer.

“We are also seeing a new kind of strike announcement that gives us as an airline only a few hours in advance to prepare solutions for our passengers. This is a big challenge for us,” Lufthansa subsidiary Austrian Airlines CEO Kay Kratky told journalists in Vienna.