Flight cancellations before Easter: Austrian Lufthansa subsidiary is on strike until Good Friday

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Parked aircraft from Austrian Airlines: strike before the Easter weekend

Photo: Robert Jaeger / dpa

While a breakthrough was achieved in collective bargaining at Lufthansa, the fronts between the Austrian subsidiary and the union appear to have hardened: the on-board staff of Austrian Airlines (AUA) went on strike again before the Easter weekend. Because of the action, which is planned from Thursday to Friday lunchtime, the airline canceled a total of 400 flights.

Travel connections to Germany are also affected by the strike: In the first few hours, connections between Vienna and Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart and Leipzig, among others, were canceled. The airline estimated the financial damage at 24 million euros, 15 million euros for the strike and nine million euros for company meetings.

According to the AUA, around 50,000 passengers were affected by the industrial dispute. The company has offered these customers free rebookings or cancellations. “All passengers will be rebooked on the next possible flight,” said the airline. »The guest can decide against rebooking the flight, cancel the flight and have it refunded.«

The AUA has offered salary increases of up to 18 percent to staff in the cabin and up to 28 percent in the cockpit. The union described the company's offer as inadequate. “The salary structures must be sustainably improved so that the AUA is no longer at the bottom of the list in the Lufthansa Group when it comes to salaries,” the union recently said.

Lufthansa reaches an agreement in the tariff dispute

The aim is to close the salary gap compared to salaries at Lufthansa, which, according to the union, is 40 percent. In the past few weeks, company meetings and a warning strike had already led to hundreds of flight cancellations.

In contrast to the escalating collective bargaining dispute at AUA, a collective bargaining solution for ground staff was announced at Lufthansa on Wednesday evening. Air travelers do not have to fear strikes by ground staff at Germany's largest airline over the Easter holidays.

eru/dpa/Reuters