Lufthansa has announced that 876 out of a total of 3,000 flights have been cancelled on Wednesday (November 23) after its pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit called for a 24-hour strike, starting tomorrow.

The cancellations are the latest in a series of disruptions that the airline has faced over the year, with tomorrow's strike affecting 100,000 passengers overall.

Only 2,124 of approximately 3,000 daily flights of the Lufthansa Group are scheduled to take place.

According to the statement, the pilot's are seeking a salary increase over the next five years, which totals 20 per cent. The pilots have not received a wage hike since 2012, when their last contract expired.

Lufthansa has offered mediation to Vereinigung Cockpit on a number of occasions, in order to resolve the wage dispute with the assistance of a neutral third party but VC has consistently rejected the offer, the carrier has said.

Lufthansa is working on putting a special flight schedule in place for the duration of the strike, which will allow customers to verify whether their flight will be taking place as scheduled.
 
Customers whose flights have been cancelled due to the strike have the one-time option to transfer or cancel their booking. In addition to this, all passengers travelling with the Group airlines Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, SWISS and Brussels Airlines will have the one-time option to transfer their booking for free, regardless of whether their flight has been cancelled or not.

Passengers can find additional information on LH.com under ‘Current Travel Information’. For flights within Germany, there is also the option to exchange flight tickets for train-travel vouchers.
 
The Group airlines Eurowings, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, Air Dolomiti and Brussels Airlines will not be affected by the strike. Flights to and from Germany that are operated by Group airlines are also not included in the call to strike. Flight operations at the Zurich, Vienna and Brussels hubs will proceed as scheduled. Austrian and Swiss are currently reviewing the possibility of increasing their flight capacity to Germany. Among other things, at least one connection with a Boeing 777 is planned between Vienna and Frankfurt.
 
Lufthansa plans to operate individual routes tomorrow in spite of the strikes. Among other destinations, flights are planned from Frankfurt to Chicago, Delhi, Haneda, Houston, Miami and Washington. A total of three intercontinental flights are scheduled to depart from Munich tomorrow – to San Francisco, Newark and Charlotte. Other connections, including Hong Kong and Shanghai, are being postponed until Thursday, it said. - TradeArabia News Service