Lufthansa pilots begin strike, 100,000 passengers hit
Berlin - Lufthansa pilots began a two-day strike Wednesday morning as they protest for a pay increase of 22 per cent over five years, the airline confirmed to dpa.
On Wednesday alone, 876 flights were expected to be cancelled, while an emergency flight plan was still to be drawn up for Thursday's annulled flights.
The airline expects 100,000 passengers to be affected by the strike, which is the 14th by pilots since pay negotiations stalled in 2014.
The pilot organisation Vereinigung Cockpit announced the strike on Monday and the company was unsuccessful in blocking it at a court in Frankfurt on Tuesday.
Germany's airport association ADV said that it expects damages to run into the millions of dollars due to the strike.
"This development is not acceptable and disproportionate," Ralph Beisel from ADV told German newspaper Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung.
On Tuesday, flight attendants from Lufthansa's subsidiary Eurowings also stopped work at Hamburg and Dusseldorf airports. 4,100passengers were affected.
