Lufthansa suspended 800 flights on Friday to and from Frankfurt and Munich airports due to the pilots’ strike

Lufthansa has announced the cancellation of “almost all” of its flights to and from its two main airports, Munich and Frankfurt. Friday after Pilots called for a strike.

The airline will cancel 800 flights on September 2, affecting “130,000 passengers”Lufthansa said in a statement, after the flight crew announced the strike over a wage dispute.

Lufthansa regretted the union’s decision and defended its submission A “very good offer” would have raised the pilots’ base salary by 900 euros ($902) a month.

The cockpit union is looking for a 5.5% salary increase at the end of the yearAutomatic compensation for inflation and adjustment of the salary scale.

According to Lufthansa, union orders will increase the cost of employees by an 40%.

The union stresses that to avoid social protests, The airline should ‘make a significantly improved offer’. “At the moment, we are very far away,” said his negotiator Marcel Gruelz.

“In addition to compensating for the real wage loss, we now need first of all a sustainable solution to the wage structure across all occupational groups,” he added.

Cockpit spokesman Matthias Bayer confirmed this in a union statement announcing the strike ‘Negotiations failed’.

“Recognizing our responsibility to the company and customers, we did not want to stop trying everything and offered another negotiation date despite the insufficient offer and failed negotiations,” he said.

With inflation rising, negotiations on collective agreements are expected to be tense in the coming months in Europe.

Strikes and staff shortages have already forced many airlines, including Lufthansa, to do so Thousands of flights canceled this summercausing queues for several hours at major airports after restrictions due to COVID-19 ended.

(With information from EFE, AFP and Reuters)

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