Lufthansa cancels over 900 flights affecting thousands of passengers over pilot dispute

Germany’s flagship carrier Lufthansa said it would cancel nearly 900 flights on Wednesday because of a strike by pilots, causing travel disruption for tens of thousands of passengers in the latest escalation of a long-running pay dispute. The stoppage, called by the pilots’ union Cockpit, would start at midnight and affect Lufthansa flights at airports across Germany. Out of its roughly 3,000 scheduled flights, 876 would be cancelled due to the strike, “affecting some 100,000 passengers”, Lufthansa said in a statement. It is the union’s 14th strike since April 2014.
The Lufthansa pilots going on strike are demanding a pay rise of an average of 3.66% per year, retroactive for the past five years. The union says pilots have endured a wage freeze over that time and suffered a “significant loss of purchasing power” due to inflation, while Lufthansa has made billions in profits. It had offered a 2.5% wage hike.