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Eurowings aircraft
Photo: Bodo Marks/ DPA
With a day-long strike, pilots from the airline Eurowings caused numerous flight cancellations at the Lufthansa subsidiary.
Tens of thousands of passengers had to switch to other flights or the train or postpone their journey.
According to Eurowings, a good half of all flights were canceled.
On average, the Lufthansa subsidiary operates around 500 flights a day to travel destinations in Germany and Europe.
However, the airline assumes that more than 30,000 passengers will reach their destination on the day of the strike, said a Eurowings spokesman.
The fact that Eurowings was still able to offer almost half of the planned flights despite the strike was mainly due to the fact that the machines of the Austrian subsidiary Eurowings Europe were not affected by the industrial action.
It flies "under full load," it said.
In addition, the airline used aircraft from partner companies, which also otherwise carry out some of the flights.
The union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) had called the Eurowings pilots to go on strike after negotiations on a general collective agreement had failed.
German airports were particularly hard hit by the strike action.
In
Dusseldorf
, the largest Eurowings location, 118 flights were canceled according to earlier information from the airport.
In
Cologne/Bonn
, 61 of the planned 90 connections were canceled.
In
Hamburg
there were 72 and in
Stuttgart
64 flights.
Since Eurowings informed the customers in good time, there were no problems at the airports, according to the airports.
The VC union is concerned with the conflict about better working conditions.
A central requirement is the relief of employees, for example by reducing the maximum flight duty times.
Eurowings criticized the strike as disproportionate and irresponsible before it even started.
Personnel manager Kai Duve called the demands “in times when millions of people fear a cold winter and the next heating bill” excessive and dangerous for the future viability of flight operations and jobs.
Although the strike is limited to one day, it cannot be ruled out that some passengers will still be confronted with problems here and there on Friday.
Eurowings emphasized that the company is currently making all preparations to return to normal flight operations immediately after the end of the strike.
However, a cockpit spokesman said: "There are likely to be start-up problems because the strike is causing aircraft not where they should be - and crews are not in the right place either."
ssu/dpa