Lufthansa cabin crew strike leaves 100k passengers stranded
The German flag carrier, Lufthansa, says an industrial action by the airline’s cabin crew has resulted in 100,000 passengers to be stranded.
Lufthansa said the strike by the flight attendants' union, UFO, caused the cancellation of 930 flights in and out of Frankfurt, Munich and Duesseldorf airports on Wednesday, the fifth day of the walkout.
The grounded flights make about a third of the total operated by the German airline per day.
The strike over Lufthansa’s cost-cutting plans, which began on Sunday, is expected to go on until Friday.
Four days of work stoppages had already forced the airline to ground 2,800 flights, leaving some 330,000 passengers stranded at airports.
Lufthansa said earlier this week the walkouts were costing it at least 10 million euros a day.
Lufthansa had challenged the legality of the strikes through court injunctions. However, earlier on Wednesday, the labor court of Darmstadt, which has jurisdiction for Frankfurt and Munich airports, ruled in favor of the striking cabin staff of Europe's largest airline.
Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr said that the row with the flight attendants' union will run for as long as necessary although "each day of strike is one too many.”
The dispute between Lufthansa and UFO erupted nearly two years ago. The union is looking to keep early retirement benefits and pensions unchanged for its 19,000 members.
However, Lufthansa argues that the provisions are too expensive in the face of tough competition from European budget airlines.
The airline has also seen more than a dozen pilot strikes over the past 18 months.
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