Germanwings forced to cancel flights from today
Lufthansa’s low-cost subsidiary Germanwings has been forced to cancel up to 360 flights over the next two days due to a pilot strike.
It has warned of ‘considerable disruption and delays’ to flights today and tomorrow.
An alternative schedule for today and Friday has been published on its website.
The strike by members of the Vereinigung Cockpit union started at 23:00 yesterday and will run until 22:59 on Friday in a dispute over pay and conditions.
The VC pilots staged 10 strikes last year, hitting hundreds of thousands of passengers and costing Lufthansa more than £148 million.
Germanwings said it expected to operate more than 60% of its 900 scheduled flights over the next two days by drafting in volunteer pilots or chartering planes with crew from other airlines.
It said only 20% of its passengers would be affected.
The dispute between pilots and management concerns Lufthansa’s plan to change early retirement benefits for new recruits.
At the moment, pilots can retire with benefits at 55, but Lufthansa wants to increase the earliest age at which pilots can retire as part of its cost-cutting drive.
Germanwings flights operated by Eurowings will not be affected by this strike.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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