Lufthansa Pilots Strike (Again), Could Cause Headaches

Contributing Editor Carl Unger believes that every trip is worth taking. He loves an extended trip to Europe as much as he enjoys exploring the towns and landscape near home. Basically, you'll find him wherever there is good food, fresh air, and plenty of stories to bring home.

Carl has been writing for SmarterTravel since 2005. His travel writing has also appeared on USA Today and the About.com Boston travel guide.

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Lufthansa pilots are striking for the 14th time since 2014 in their attempt to extract better wages from the carrier.

According to USA Today,”Lufthansa has grounded more than 1,700 flights on Tuesday [the 29th] and Wednesday [the 30th],” with Tuesday’s cancellations mostly impacting routes within Germany. Many of the 890 flights cancelled for Wednesday are expected to include intra-Europe and transatlantic flights as well. Roughly 180,000 passengers will be affected in total.

Lufthansa pilots went on strike last week as well, for four days. It’s unclear if this latest strike will last as long.

Travelers affected by the strike–or, in some cases, who may be affected–can rebook flights free of charge.

Each day the pilots strike costs Lufthansa about $10.6 million. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Lufthansa has suffered a series of pilot and cabin-crew strikes in recent years as it seeks to cut costs to compete more effectively with lower-cost rivals.”

The pilots’ union, for its part, “wants its members to receive retroactive raises of 3.66% a year going back 5½ years,” reports USA Today. “Lufthansa offered to boost pilot pay by 4.4% by mid-2018 in addition to offering a one-time payment equal to 1.8 monthly salaries.” The sides do not appear close to an agreement, meaning there might be additional strikes on the horizon.

Readers, have you ever had a flight canceled due to an airline strike?

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