More strike action is planned by flight crew at the German flag carrier Lufthansa in an increasingly bitter dispute by pilots that could leave tens of thousands of passengers stranded on Monday and Tuesday after the short-notice walkout was called with little more than 24 hours’ notice.
Lufthansa says it is now racing against the clock to get other airlines within its group of carriers to operate affected flights, but with the dispute now spreading to other airlines, Lufthansa has increasingly limited options.
On Saturday, the Vereinigung Cockpit union announced that its members at the mainline Lufthansa brand would strike on April 13 and 14. Pilots at Lufthansa Cargo, short-haul subsidiary Lufthansa CityLine, and its budget arm Eurowings are also being called to join the walkout.
Lufthansa said it is “intensively” working to limit the impact of the strike action, although the airline, which is supposed to be celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2026, doesn’t yet know how many flights it will be able to operate.
In a statement, the union said it had been “forced to take this step after the employer side shows no recognizable will to find a solution in several collective bargaining conflicts.”
Union president Andreas Pinheiro added, “A strike is always a last resort to break the deadlock in failed negotiations. We would have very much preferred to avoid it—especially given the hardships it causes for our passengers and our colleagues on the ground. However, the responsibility for this lies with the employer.”
The call to strike was announced just a day after thousands of Lufthansa flight attendants took part in a 24-hour work stoppage that grounded planes across the airline’s network.
The main dispute for mainline Lufthansa pilots is over the carrier’s controversial plan to change pensions from a defined benefit pension to a 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.
Last month, Lufthansa said it was open to resuming negotiations with Vereinigung Cockpit over the union’s preferred plans to improve the pilot pension scheme, although these talks appear to have ended in deadlock.
Strike strife has also engulfed Lufthansa CityLine, which operates short-haul flights on behalf of Lufthansa across Europe, over pay and benefits, while, for the first time, pilots at low-cost brand Eurowings are joining the strike action due to a seperate pension dispute.
Since February, Lufthansa has faced days of strike action from disgruntled pilots and flight attendants:
- On February 12, pilots at Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo, as well as mainline flight attendants and CityLine crew members, staged a one-day warning strike.
- On March 12 and March 13, pilots held a 48-hour work stoppage in protest at an ongoing dispute over pension contributions.
- On April 10, flight attendants at Lufthansa and Lufthansa CityLine took part in a one-day strike.
Given that the strike action is likely to be classed as an ‘internal dispute’ which is within Lufthansa’s control, the airline will struggle to argue that any flight cancellations are the result of an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ that exempts it from paying compensation under Europe’s EU-261 passenger rights regulations.
Passengers hit by short-notice cancellations or lengthy delays as a result of the strike action will be able to claim up to €600 per person.
