A passenger at the airport in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, watches an information board with a list of canceled flights due to a strike.
Berlin – Due to the strike, traffic will be significantly reduced today at seven German airports – in Munich, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Hanover and Bremen. The Verdi trade union called the strike after unsuccessful negotiations for a wage increase.
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The strike is scheduled to begin early in the morning and end on Saturday night. According to the estimates of the airport association ADV, it should affect almost 300,000 passengers and lead to the failure of at least 2,340 connections. Airports in Frankfurt am Main, Munich, Stuttgart and Hamburg have already announced that they are canceling all scheduled flights for today.
The strike comes after air traffic in Germany was severely disrupted on Wednesday when the computer systems of Germany's largest airline, Lufthansa, collapsed. On Thursday, hackers tried to disrupt the websites of seven smaller German airports with a large number of targeted requests.
Lufthansa cancels Friday flights to Prague from Frankfurt and Munich, apparently due to a strike
The Lufthansa airline canceled connections between Prague and Germany's Frankfurt am Main and Munich on Friday. Prague Airport spokeswoman Klára Divíšková said this today when asked by ČTK. She added that she did not see the reasons in the system, but the cancellation was probably related to a planned strike by workers at seven German airports. The Verdi union announced on Wednesday that workers at airports in Munich, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Hanover and Bremen will go on strike due to the so-far failed negotiations over a public sector wage increase.
“As of today Six flights are canceled at 11:00 a.m., it concerns Munich and Frankfurt,” Divíšková told ČTK. Among the canceled connections is already one today, from Munich, according to the website of the Prague airport, arriving in Prague late in the evening. Prague does not have regular direct flights to the other cities where the employees will be on strike. Flights from the low-cost airline Eurowings are still active on Friday, but a spokeswoman for the Prague airport warned that this could still change.
The strike is scheduled to start on Friday after midnight and end on Saturday night. The unions are demanding a 10.5 percent wage increase for the 2.5 million employees in the public sector, but at least an additional 500 euros (11,820 CZK) for each. They also plan more warning strikes before the next round of negotiations on February 22 and 23.
