Crippling strike action by pilots and flight attendants at the German flag carrier Lufthansa, which has grounded thousands of flights since Monday and left tens of thousands of passengers stranded, has now been extended through to the end of Friday after the pilots’ union announced two more strike dates.
Pilots represented by the Vereinigung Cockpit union originally planned to strike on Monday and Tuesday. This announcement was then quickly followed by flight attendants represented by the UFO union, who declared a walkout on Wednesday and Thursday.
Late on Tuesday night, however, the Vereinigung Cockpit union said it would hold a further 48-hour stoppage on Thursday and Friday, extending the mass disruption to Lufthansa’s flight schedules for an entire working week.
| Date | Airlines | Workgroup |
|---|---|---|
| April 15 | Lufthansa Lufthansa CityLine | Flight attendants |
| April 16 | Lufthansa Lufthansa Cargo Lufthansa CityLine Eurowings | Flight attendants Pilots |
| April 17 | Lufthansa Lufthansa Cargo Lufthansa CityLine Eurowings | Pilots |
“The situation remains unchanged—there has been no movement whatsoever on the part of the employers,” commented Andreas Pinheiro, President of Vereinigung Cockpit union, as the new strike dates were announced.
The union is calling pilots on strike from several different Lufthansa Group-owned airlines, including the mainline Lufthansa brand, Lufthansa Cargo, short-haul subsidiary Lufthansa CityLine, and low-cost brand Eurowings.
The reasons for the walkout differ from one airline to the airline, including disputes over pension schemes, and Lufthansa’s controversial plans to shutter CityLine.
“Neither Lufthansa nor Lufthansa Cargo has presented an offer regarding the company pension plan, nor has Lufthansa CityLine presented a viable offer for a new collective bargaining agreement on pay, nor has Eurowings presented an offer regarding the company pension plan,” Pinheiro explained.
Declaring the situation as “deadlocked,” Pinheiro now wants Lufthansa to agree to binding independent arbitration to avoid “further escalation.”
Strike action by flight attendants will ground nearly all flights departing Germany on Wednesday, including Lufthansa’s hub at Frankfurt am Main Airport, where Lufthansa still plans to hold a glitzy ceremony, attended by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, to celebrate the airline’s 100th anniversary.
Flight attendants and pilots will be protesting outside the ceremony to further pressure the embattled airline.
Your questions
Will passengers on cancelled flights be eligible for EU261 compensation? While a definitive answer isn’t possible, it would be very difficult for Lufthansa to argue that these strikes are the result of an ‘extraordinary circumstance’ which would exempt it from paying EU261 compensation. As a result, Lufthansa could have to pay up to €600 per passenger for short-notice cancellations or lengthy delays.
What other rights do passengers have? Regardless of compensation, Lufthansa is required to provide passengers on cancelled or delayed flights access to refreshments, hotel accommodation for overnight delays, and transport to and from the place of accommodation.
Due to the massive nature of the disruption, Lufthansa is likely to ask passengers to find their own hotel accommodation and then claim back from the airline at a later date.
Why is Lufthansa playing hardball with aircrew? The airline is desperate to save money after years of disappointing financial results. Lufthansa CEO Carsten Sphor has previously described the mainline airline as the Lufthansa Group’s “problem child” due to high overheads that cut into profit margins.
In 2025, the mainline Lufthansa brand made €17.1 billion in revenues but only €148 million in profit. In comparison, SWISS made €6.48 billion in revenue but €600 million in profit, and Eurowings made €132 million in profit on revenues of €3.08 billion.
How much will these strikes cost Lufthansa? The costs from these walkouts will be quickly mounting and could easily stretch into the hundreds of millions of Euros. A coordinated series of strikes by flight attendants and ground staff in 2024 cost Lufthansa around €350 million, plus an additional €100 million in short term pay rises and one-off bonuses.
Lufthansa will be able to slightly offset these costs in fuel savings and staff wages, but this won’t make too much of a dent into the total bill the airline is facing.
