Lufthansa: Attendants' strike disrupts 37,500 passengers

Lufthansa has grounded nearly 10% of its entire schedule Friday because of the latest strike to roil the German carrier. Strikes have occurred frequently in recent years for cost-cutting Lufthansa. There were at least nine work stoppages by Lufthansa pilots in 2014 alone.

The latest strike – this time by Lufthansa’s flight attendants – is affecting flights at the airline’s Frankfurt and Dusseldorf hubs. Flights at Munich, Lufthansa’s second-busiest hub behind Frankfurt, have so far been unaffected. However, the attendants union warned of disruptions stretching well into next week.

"Friday will be the first day of the week of strikes," cabin crew union UFO says in a Thursday statement quoted by Reuters.

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For Friday, nearly 300 flights had been canceled as of mid-day German time. Lufthansa estimated that about 37,500 passengers had been affected.

Lufthansa urged customers ticketed to travel during the strike to check on the status of their flights before heading to the airport. Lufthansa’s subsidiary carriers – including Austrian, Germanwings, Eurowings and Swiss – are not being targeted by the strike.

Among the key disputes are retirement benefits, The Associated Press reports. In particular, attendants are reportedly unhappy on Lufthansa's plans regarding "transition" payments for crew retiring before government benefits begin.

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PHOTO ARCHIVES: Lufthansa flights snarled by pilot strike (December 2014)

The attendants pledged to continue their strike into Saturday and beyond, though the union tells the German English-language news site Deutsche Welle it would skip Sunday “since most people travelling that day will be doing so in a private capacity."

The union threatened to rotate the strike unpredictably around Lufthansa’s various hubs and bases, but pledged to spare Munich because of local holidays in the Bavaria region.

For Saturday, Bloomberg News says the attendants are targeting Boeing 737 and Airbus A320-series flights from Frankfurt – a move that would affect mostly shorter flights within Germany and Europe.

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