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 – Traffic at seven German airports will be significantly reduced on Friday due to the strike. The Verdi union has announced 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 for a pay increase for public sector workers. Passengers must prepare for delays and cancellations of numerous connections, the DPA agency reported today. Airports in Frankfurt am Main, Munich, Hamburg and Stuttgart have already announced that they will cancel all scheduled flights on Friday. German airline Lufthansa is canceling hundreds of flights on Friday.
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The unions are demanding a 10.5 percent wage increase for the 2.5 million employees in the public sector, but at least 500 euros (11,820 CZK) more for everyone. They also plan more warning strikes before the next round of negotiations on February 22 and 23.
The strike is due to start after midnight on Friday and end on Saturday night. Munich Airport, which is the second largest in Germany, announced today that it is canceling all scheduled flights on Friday due to the strike, and Hamburg Airport had previously announced the cancellation of flights for Friday. Later, the largest German airport in Frankfurt am Main and the airport in southern Germany, Stuttgart, joined them with the announcement of the cancellation of all scheduled flights. The strike will not affect the delivery of aid to earthquake-stricken Turkey and Syria.
The airport association ADV expects the cancellation of 2,340 domestic and international flights. The strike will complicate the flight plans of more than 295,000 passengers, according to ADV CEO Ralph Beisel. The Lufthansa airline said it was currently canceling 1,200 flights at Frankfurt and Munich airports, and said the number was not final.
Due to other disputes over wages for some groups of workers, strikes in January paralyzed traffic at Berlin and Düsseldorf airports . Operations at Willy Brandt Airport on the border between Berlin and Brandenburg came to a complete halt on January 25.
