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Over 800 Lufthansa flights canceled over German airport strike

In this photo taken on March 16, 2017, a new aircraft Airbus A 350 of German airline Lufthansa is pictured at the Lufthansa terminal of the Franz-Josef-Strauss airport in Munich, southern Germany. (Photo by AFP)

A planned strike by workers of the aviation sector in Germany has prompted airline giant Lufthansa to cancel more than 800 flights for Tuesday.

Lufthansa announced Monday that some 90,000 passengers at major airports like Frankfurt would be affected by the walkout of workers groups like support staff and airport firefighters who plan to walk off the job between 05:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. local time (0300 to 1600 GMT).

“Lufthansa must cancel more than 800 of its planned 1,600 flights tomorrow, including 58 long-distance services, because of the strike,” the airline said in its statement, adding that service would be back to normal on Wednesday after the strike.         

Airports in Munich, Cologne and Bremen are also expected to be hit by the Tuesday strike. Germany’s largest airport, Frankfurt, asked travelers on its website to check with their carrier whether their flight would go ahead before departure, warning of “significant delays and cancellations” affecting many airlines.

The strike on Tuesday is of a “warning” type, a traditional warm-up walkout in Germany to prepare the ground for sector-wide pay and conditions talks. It is part of a string of strikes planned between April 10 and 13, which would also affect other sectors like local transport, kindergartens, rubbish collection and hospitals in several states.

Verdi, a major union, said the walkouts were aimed at “increasing pressure” on employers to “allow public sector workers a share in good economic performance” in Germany, Europe's largest economy, where the government has benefitted from a significant surge in tax income.

The strike comes nearly two months after workers in metal industry managed to gain a 4.3-percent pay increase and other benefits through a deal they reached with employers after walking off the job.


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