Tens of thousands of passengers who are set to travel with German flag carrier Lufthansa this week could be left stranded after the airline’s pilots’ union announced a one-day strike that will take place on Thursday in a dispute over pensions.
The Vereinigung Cockpit union announced that the strike will start at 12:01 am on February 12 and conclude at 11:59 pm after seven rounds of tense pension negotiations failed to resolve a deadlock.
“We would have liked to avoid an escalation,” commented the union’s president, Andreas Pinheiro, as the strike was announced. “We were always ready to talk and tried several times to get moving in the negotiations. The fact that this strike is now still taking place is the responsibility of the employer.”
The threat of a potential strike first emerged in September 2025 when the union declared an impasse over pension plans.
Until 2017, Lufthansa offered a defined benefit pension plan with guaranteed payouts based on the pilot’s years of service and final rank at the time of retirement.
The union and its members are unhappy with the newer defined contribution pension, which is based on how much pilots have contributed into the scheme and how those contributions perform in the stock market.
While the union accepts that Lufthansa isn’t going to restore a defined benefit pension plan, it wants the airline to boost contributions to pilots’ plans, whose payouts might be lower than they expected.
When and where will the strike take place?
The strike will affect passenger flights operated by the mainline Lufthansa brand, as well as Lufthansa Cargo services, which depart from Germany on Thursday, February 12.
The strike should not affect inbound flights to Germany, so long as the outbound flight departed before the start of the walkout.
The strike won’t impact flights operated by Lufthansa’s myriad subsidiaries, such as Eurowings and Discover Airlines.
How many passengers will be impacted?
Lufthansa has yet to process cancellations for the strike period, so it’s too early to say exactly how many passengers will be impacted. That being said, it’s estimated that tens of thousands of passengers could be caught up in the disruption.
It remains to be seen whether Lufthansa will attempt to operate some flights or will blanket cancel flights during the strike period.
Are passengers able to claim EU-261 compensation for a cancelled or delayed flight?
Given that this is an internal strike, Lufthansa will struggle to argue that the walkout is an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ that it has no control over. As a result, passengers may be able to claim compensation under Europe’s EU-261 passenger rights regulations.
Compensation can be claimed if a flight is delayed by at least three hours or cancelled with less than 14 days’ notice.
Even if Lufthansa argues that it is not liable to pay compensation, stranded passengers can still appeal an initial rejection, and, in any case, are entitled to care and assistance in the form of meals and refreshments, hotel accommodation for overnight delays, and transport to and from the place of accommodation.
When was the last time that Lufthansa pilots went on strike?
Pilots at Lufthansa’s mainline airline last went on strike in September 2022 in a 24-hour walkout that grounded 800 flights and left 130,000 passengers stranded. The two sides reached a deal in last-ditch negotiations just before an ever longer walkout was due to get underway.
At the time, pilots agreed not to stage any further strike action over pay and working conditions for at least nine months.
In April 2024, however, Lufthansa faced massive disruption after flight attendants and ground workers united in coordinated strike action that cost the airline at least €350 million (US $372 million).
Lufthansa has also faced industrial strife at several of its subsidiaries that were created with the aim of reducing employee costs in the form of lower pay and pension contributions.
