The second warning strike by ground staff in Germany began at Lufthansa, AUA's parent company. The company expects hundreds of flight cancellations and more than 100,000 passengers to be affected.
The company has already canceled a series of connections this evening at its most important hub, in Frankfurt. Only a few intercontinental flights are still expected to take place. According to a spokeswoman, Austrian Airlines flights will not be affected for now.
This evening, Lufthansa employees in technology, logistics, freight and IT went on alert strike, as ver.di strike leader Marvin Reschinsky confirmed. Tomorrow, at 4am, ground staff from Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Cologne/Bonn and Stuttgart will move on.
Passengers should not come to the airport
The airline wants to put ten to 20 percent of its planned program of around 1,000 flights into the air tomorrow. During the first wave of alert strikes, almost two weeks ago, around 900 flights were canceled and more than 100,000 passengers had to reschedule.
Lufthansa warned passengers on canceled flights: they should not come to the airport because the rebooking counters were unstaffed, information systems said.
The backdrop to the ground staff warning strike is group-wide collective wage negotiations for, according to ver.di, around 25,000 employees on the ground – including at Deutsche Lufthansa, Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Cargo, Lufthansa Technik Logistik Services, Lufthansa Engineering and Operational Services and other group companies. Lufthansa speaks of around 20 thousand employees.