Lufthansa have been forced cancelled hundreds of flights Wednesday, ahead of a 48-hour pilot strike due to a continuing pay dispute saga.
The airline cancelled 876 of 3000 flights due to depart on Wednesday and will be forced to ground planes on Thursday, according to Reuters news reports, affecting passengers on both short and long-haul flights out of Germany.
This is the 14th strike to hit the airline, with Wednesday’s cancellations affecting about 100,000 passengers.
Flights by Germanwings, Eurowings, Austrian Airlines, SWISS and Brussels Airlines, all part of the Lufthansa Group, are not affected by the pilots’ strike the airline stated, per the Reuters report.
Meanwhile, the group are banding together to ease passenger disruption, with Austrian and SWISS looking to use larger aircraft on some services to increase the number of passengers on flights.
Lufthansa were preparing to prevent the pilots walk-out, but the strike was given an all-clear by courts due to the complex nature of the labour dispute.
Chief Executive Carsten Spohr was reported as saying the Wednesday strike is expected to cost the group a high single-digit million euro amount for the day.
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