FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The crew strike announced for Friday at the Lufthansa subsidiary Discover is having its first effects. The company has returned ten flights that it was supposed to fly on Friday for the parent company Lufthansa in Munich. According to a spokesperson, efforts are being made to provide the flights with other aircraft and crews. However, it was still unclear on Thursday afternoon whether the Discover Airlines departures planned from Frankfurt would be able to take place.

Everything is being done to get as many passengers as possible to their destinations, a Discover spokeswoman emphasized again. She could not say whether flights would have to be canceled. The company had originally spoken of around 20 departures from Frankfurt during the strike period. The airport's flight schedule listed 14 departures for Friday, of which one to Cancun in Mexico was canceled. Of 15 planned landings, two from Cancun and Philadelphia have been canceled. In principle, only departures from Germany are on strike, but this may also have consequences for connecting flights.

On Wednesday evening, the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots' union called on its members to go on a full-day strike on Friday. This was later joined by the cabin crew union Ufo, which also called a 24-hour warning strike. At issue are the first collective wage agreements at the vacation airline, which was only founded two and a half years ago and currently has 24 aircraft. According to union circles, the collaboration between the crews will make it more difficult for the company to find sufficient staff for the flights.

The company sharply criticized the strike calls on Thursday and described them as an unnecessary escalation. "While the VC has recently categorically rejected every offer from Discover Airlines to continue talks, Ufo is calling for a warning strike in a company with which it has not previously held a single discussion," a spokeswoman explained. Ufo regrets the impact that this strike will have on travelers' travel plans.

Ufo negotiator Harry Jäger rejected the accusations. Since the company was founded, the management had blocked Ufo's requests for talks. They therefore see no other means than the warning strike to finally be heard. The Discover spokeswoman, on the other hand, said that a meeting that had already been arranged last September had been canceled by Ufo at short notice. The company was ready to talk at any time.

A first warning strike by the pilots on the day before Christmas Eve had been relatively mild for most passengers. Discover was able to reschedule flights to times outside the five-hour strike window. A longer strike, on the other hand, was more likely to result in flight cancellations. Following the surprising warning strike, Lufthansa had demanded an additional agreement on how to deal with each other - a so-called social partner charter. This was rejected by VC as a restriction on the freedom of collective bargaining.

The Lufthansa Group's vacation airline was initially launched in the coronavirus summer of 2021 under the name "Eurowings Discover" and later renamed "Discover Airlines". Discover is intended to be more cost-effective than the Lufthansa core brand and compete with vacation airlines such as Condor.

In a ballot, almost 96 percent of VC members voted in favor of industrial action. There is also no collective agreement for cabin crews as yet. The Ufo union, which has not yet held a ballot, is negotiating there./ceb/DP/jha