Vortex about Lufthansa: only long-haul flights next year?

Created: 12/28/2021, 5:04 PM

From: Sebastian Richter

Lufthansa cannot come to an agreement with its pilots.

Lufthansa’s short and medium-haul services could fall victim to the wage dispute.

(Symbol picture) © Boris Roessler / dpa

The wage dispute at Lufthansa does not end.

The group could see itself forced to cancel numerous flight destinations.

Frankfurt - Lufthansa is not coming to rest. The Corona * pandemic is causing immense damage to the largest German airline headquartered at Frankfurt Airport *. The airline is not only concerned about the lower flight operations; Personnel issues are also putting Lufthansa under pressure. On the one hand there are problems with the training contracts of pilots, hundreds of flight students are suing Lufthansa *. In addition, an officially Omikron disease wave among pilots is forcing Lufthansa to cut thousands of connections *.

In addition, there is a wage dispute with the employed pilots.

The airline could now draw conclusions.

The group has already announced that it will withdraw from the perspective agreement (PPV) at the end of June 2022 *.

In the PPV, Lufthansa guarantees its pilots a fleet of at least 325 aircraft and thus secure jobs for around 5000 pilots.

In return, the pilots promised not to go on strikes until the agreement expired.

Wage dispute at Lufthansa: Group calls for massive cost reductions

In the existing dispute between the Vereinigung Cockpit union and Lufthansa, the group has now ushered in the next round.

As the news portal aero.de reports, Lufthansa continues to focus on "structural cost improvements".

Accordingly, the group warned against restructuring the airline to a pure long-haul operation - at least if the personnel costs were not significantly saved.

If no agreement can be reached between the union and Lufthansa, Lufthansa could pass on the short and medium-haul flights to the subsidiaries - which would mean job savings at the core Lufthansa group.

According to the news portal aviation.direct, there is already a favorite: Eurowings Discover.

Because no collective agreements are said to have been negotiated there so far.

According to aero.de, there is already a concrete offer from Lufthansa to the pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit.

One could promise a new fleet commitment for 325 aircraft, but demand in return a cost reduction of at least 25 percent.

Internal conflicts at Lufthansa: no agreement in the wage dispute in sight

The union criticizes the offer.

“The pilotage should renegotiate and buy the same service over and over again,” VC tariff chief Marcel Gröls told aero.de before the holidays.

“The fleet commitment from the PPV was paid for with considerable productivity gains of 15 percent.

A possibly renewed PPV at the same or lower level should now be paid again. "

Internally, according to aero.de at Lufthansa, the assumption should be made that the enormously increased number of cases of illness among pilots is not at all related to Omikron and the time of year.

Instead, insiders talk about so-called “sick-outs”.

If one believes the suspicions, the sick reports are a wildcat strike of the pilots.

In this way, the pilots bypass the PPV, in which the pilots have agreed not to go on strikes.

Of course, such assumptions cannot be proven.

(spr) *