Lufthansa arm Germanwings pilots brace for huge strike
29 Aug 2014 5:46 AM IST
Pilots of Lufthansa’s low-cost subsidiary Germanwings were set to strike in pursuit of their demands for better early retirement provisions, their union announced on Thursday. The pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit said in a statement it was ‘planning... strikes for all Germanwings flights departing from all German airports between 6:00 am and midday’ (local time) Friday.
‘At the same time, Cockpit has said it is prepared to reach an agreement at any time to avert the strikes,’ it said. Cockpit already grounded thousands of flights of the parent company Lufthansa during three days of strikes in March and April in pursuit of its demands, costing the airline around 60 million euros ($79 million).
Lufthansa said that it ‘very much regrets this strike announcement and particularly the inconvenience it will cause Germanwings customers’. The airline said it was ‘looking into what impact the strikes will have on the talks with the union’.
A spokeswoman for Germanwings said that around 164 flights would be affected by the six-hour walkout. On its website, the airline warned that the strike ‘will have a considerable effect on flight operations to and from Germany and on domestic German flights’.
‘At the same time, Cockpit has said it is prepared to reach an agreement at any time to avert the strikes,’ it said. Cockpit already grounded thousands of flights of the parent company Lufthansa during three days of strikes in March and April in pursuit of its demands, costing the airline around 60 million euros ($79 million).
Lufthansa said that it ‘very much regrets this strike announcement and particularly the inconvenience it will cause Germanwings customers’. The airline said it was ‘looking into what impact the strikes will have on the talks with the union’.
A spokeswoman for Germanwings said that around 164 flights would be affected by the six-hour walkout. On its website, the airline warned that the strike ‘will have a considerable effect on flight operations to and from Germany and on domestic German flights’.
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