FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Following a week of industrial action by flight crews at Lufthansa, all of the airline's aircraft are once again departing as scheduled, according to company statements. "Operations have resumed as planned," a spokeswoman told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur. Hundreds of flights had been cancelled over the past week.
In coordination with the cabin crew union Ufo, pilots had brought operations at Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo, and Cityline to a standstill for five days. The leisure carrier Eurowings was also hit by strikes on two days. The Group responded on Thursday by immediately shuttering flight operations at Cityline. The move was further justified by high kerosene costs associated with the regional carrier's aging fleet.
Cityline aircraft decommissioned
According to the company, Cityline's 24 passenger and three cargo aircraft have been decommissioned. In the past, the subsidiary operated feeder flights to the Frankfurt and Munich hubs under Lufthansa flight numbers.
Vereinigung Cockpit: Playing on the fear of job losses
The pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) criticized the shutdown as contradictory and deeply unsettling for the affected employees, calling it a game played on staff members' fears for their livelihoods. "On one hand, a major crisis is cited as the reason for removing capacity from the market. On the other, the company is simultaneously assessing whether other group entities - such as Lufthansa Classic itself - can take over these routes, even though management claims they are even more unprofitable," said VC President Andreas Pinheiro.
Vereinigung Cockpit does not plan any further industrial action in the immediate future, according to an internal circular. The board and the collective bargaining committee must first evaluate the situation. Furthermore, exploratory talks with the company regarding potential arbitration are scheduled for Monday. An initial attempt at arbitration failed because the two sides could not agree on a unified scope of topics./opi/DP/zb
