Airport strikes to impact 'tens of thousands'

A Lufthansa official said the upcoming strike shows "that we desperately need rules for labor disputes in the air transport industry," as six airports across Germany prepare for cancellations of both international and domestic flights on Wednesday.

The airline said that all intercontinental flights leaving from Munich will be cancelled, as will many domestic and European flights. The airports in Düsseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt, Dortmund and Hannover will also be affected.

Fight or flight

Tens of thousands of passengers will be impacted by the strike, which will end later on Wednesday. Lufthansa said that in Frankfurt flights will resume as normal after 3 p.m. (1300 UTC).

The German trade union Verdi is demanding a six percent wage increase for some two million public service employees, as well as a pay increase of 100 euros per month for trainees, according to tagesschau.de.

The next round of negotiations between the union and the government will take place on April 28 and April 29. Verdi had earlier rejected the offer of a three-percent wage increase over a period of two years.

German airports were massively disrupted last year after Lufthansa flight attendants organized a mass protest that lasted for seven days. The strikes cost the company an estimated 140 million euros, not including a separate series of strikes by Lufthansa pilots. The pilots' labor dispute remains unresolved.

blc/jr (AFP, dpa)