Lufthansa pilots launch four-day strike

More than 4,000 pilots at Germany’s Lufthansa airline launched a four-day strike early today that is expected to cause headaches for travellers around the world.

Lufthansa spokeswoman Stefanie Stotz said the strike, organised by the Cockpit pilots union, would last until Thursday.

The airline enacted a special limited flight plan and said it regretted “the inconveniences caused” to passengers. Lufthansa was forced to cancel hundreds of flights.

The airline said today it was maintaining many domestic flights and short-haul routes across Europe, though many of its long-haul flights to the US, including New York and Denver, were cancelled.

Other flights to Africa, South America and Asia were still scheduled to operate.

“Usually we have 1,800 flights a day,” the airline said. “For today, we foresee about 1,000 flights planned, but there may be more flights that could cancelled during the day.”

Pilots for Lufthansa Cargo and Lufthansa’s its low-budget subsidiary, Germanwings, are also taking part in the strike.

They are seeking increased job security and for German working conditions to apply to Lufthansa pilots hired abroad, in an effort to prevent their jobs from going to neighbouring countries with cheaper conditions.

Lufthansa had scrambled in advance to rebook passengers on other flights, or within Germany, trains.

Travellers began complaining yesterday in blogs and tweets about being stuck on hold for several hours trying to get through to Lufthansa hotlines.

Earlier yesterday transport minister Peter Ramsauer failed to get both sides to return to negotiations in an effort to ward off the strike.

Lufthansa normally offers 1,800 flights daily, including some 160 long-haul flights. It has estimated the strike could cost it about £22m (€25m) a day.