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Lufthansa strike (archive image)
Photo: Matthias Balk/ dpa
The one-day warning strike for Lufthansa ground staff announced by the Ver.di union has massive effects during the peak travel season.
Lufthansa almost stopped air traffic in Munich and Frankfurt on Wednesday.
The walkout is scheduled to begin at 3:45 a.m. in the morning and last until 6 a.m. on Thursday, according to the Ver.di union.
Which flights are affected?
Hardly any Lufthansa machines will start in Germany on Wednesday.
According to Lufthansa,
more than a thousand flights are to be canceled from Tuesday to Friday, and 134,000 passengers are affected
.
In
Frankfurt
, a total of 678 flights have to be canceled, as Lufthansa announced – 32 of them on Tuesday and 646 on Wednesday.
92,000 passengers are expected to be affected.
In
Munich
, a total of 345 flights have to be canceled, 15 of them on Tuesday and 330 on Wednesday.
42,000 passengers are expected to be affected.
In addition to Frankfurt and Munich, there are also
failures in
Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Berlin, Bremen, Hanover, Stuttgart
and
Cologne .
The Lufthansa Group usually maintains smaller units there, which also offer their services to other airlines.
In Bavaria, Friday is the last day of school before the summer holidays.
The Lufthansa subsidiary
Austrian
announces that its flight schedule between Austria and Germany will also be affected.
Customers should check their flight status on the website and follow the instructions there, such as: "If your flight to Germany is operated, but your international onward flight from Germany is cancelled, we recommend that you rebook to another day." The same information is given by the Subsidiary Swiss known on its website.
According to its own statements, the holiday airline
Condor
has not had to cancel any flights so far.
Passengers who are actually supposed to be arriving on Lufthansa flights are asked to switch to the train.
One does not work with Lufthansa companies on the ground, said a Condor spokeswoman.
What does Lufthansa advise?
According to Lufthansa, passengers should always check the status of their flight on the company's website.
Here Lufthansa provides information about the strike and its consequences.
Passengers affected by cancellations who had given their mobile contact details when booking would be informed "immediately" and
rebooked on alternative flights if possible
, it said.
However, “the
capacities available for this are very limited
”.
Those who are not offered an alternative by Lufthansa should
look for it themselves on the company's website via
"My Bookings" .
Only if that doesn't work should you contact a call center.
Passengers without transfers should not come to the airports
because "little if any" service counters will be open there, the company warned.
Anyone who has been rebooked, “we strongly recommend using this alternative,” writes Lufthansa.
You should only contact the service center if you cannot take the new flight.
Lufthansa also warned transfer passengers against
flying to the German hubs without a connecting flight
.
There is a risk that guests will not be able to travel there for several hours or days.
Read more about your rights in case of flight delays here:
My flight was canceled - how do I still get to my destination?
According to Lufthansa, anyone
who has booked a
domestic German flight can
convert their ticket to a Deutsche Bahn ticket
on their website at no additional cost .
Travelers can also book their train ticket themselves, but should make sure that the train ticket price is not higher than the original price of the flight - otherwise they may be left with the difference.
Receipts should be retained and submitted to the airline for reimbursement as soon as possible.
If you want
to travel far, you
have two options: either you choose to
rebook
(see the question "What does Lufthansa recommend?"), or you book an alternative flight yourself and have the price of the Lufthansa ticket reimbursed later.
In this case, however, it is not yet clear whether the reimbursement will be approved or whether the costs will be covered, see the next point.
Do I get compensation?
According to the Air Passenger Rights Ordinance, travelers can choose whether they want a full refund of the ticket price or whether they want to be rebooked by the airline.
But whether the airline is willing to reimburse the cost of a ticket also depends on who exactly is involved in the industrial action: if the employees of a service provider at the airport, rather than the employees of the airline themselves, go on strike, the airline
can appeal "extraordinary circumstances"
and refuse compensation under the European Air Passenger Rights Regulation.
According to the managing director of the arbitration board for public transport (SÖP), Sabine Cofalla, it is unclear
whether there will be
any compensation in the current strike
.
The decisive factor is whether or not the responsible ground staff is employed by Lufthansa itself.
"We would have to check each individual case to see exactly what kind of personnel was used," says Cofalla.
She advises travelers to document all details on the day of travel - such as saving communication with the airline and photographing display boards at the airport.
Why is there a strike at all?
The Verdi union has called around 20,000 ground workers to widespread work stoppages to put pressure on the ongoing salary negotiations.
The second round of collective bargaining in mid-July was unsuccessful.
Very different groups are said to be on strike, such as counter staff, aircraft technicians or the drivers of the huge tow tractors that push aircraft into the correct positions at the airport.
For ground workers, Ver.di is demanding 9.5 percent more wages and a minimum hourly wage of 13 euros.
The union rejects the employer's current offer.
(Read more about this here.) Ver.di negotiator Christine Behle described the example in the offer from the employer side as “nicely calculated”.
kko/ptz/abl/dpa/AFP