Lufthansa strike: Thousands of passengers have their flights cancelled

The German airline has grounded 1,300 flights in total on Thursday and Friday, affecting 180,000 passengers

Tens of thousands of passengers booked to fly on Lufthansa on Thursday and Friday are now finding out whether their flights will be cancelled because of a strike by cabin crew.

Members of the Independent Flight Attendants’ Organisation (UFO) will stop work for 48 hours on 7 and 8 November in a dispute over pay and conditions.

The German airline unsuccessfully challenged the strike call in court on Wednesday morning.

It has now said that it will cancel 700 flights on Thursday and 600 on Friday, affecting a total of 180,000 passengers.

The strike will benefit Lufthansa’s rivals. Under European air passengers’ rights rules, travellers whose flights are cancelled are entitled to alternative departures as close to their original timings as possible – on any airline that has seats available.

Passengers are also entitled to meals and, if necessary, accommodation, until they can reach their destination.

Some claims-handling companies say they will be entitled to cash compensation, though there has been no definitive ruling in the European Court of Justice over official strikes.

The cancellations represent 22 per cent of the Lufthansa Group schedule on the two days. Most of the group’s subsidiaries – including Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings and Swiss – are not involved in the industrial action.

Any passenger booked to travel on Thursday or Friday to or from the airline’s hubs in Frankfurt and Munich can switch dates even if their flight is still operating, in order to avoid the strike. They can rebook for any date between 9 and 15 November.

Domestic passengers are being offered the chance to switch to German Railways for no extra charge

Meanwhile, Lufthansa’s chief executive, Carsten Spohr, has invited the union leaders for talks at 6pm, local time, on Wednesday – along with representatives of two other unions, Verdi and CU.

The UFO union says it will attend the meeting, even though it called the invitation “a pure PR measure” and “a distraction manoeuvre”.

The union has also accused the airline of a “witch hunt” against its co-chairs, Sylvia de la Cruz and Daniel Flohr, who it says are being sued in person. And it is warning cabin crew members that they may be called at home by the airline.

UFO is telling them: “You do not have to answer the phone or take any instructions. Whether you go on strike or not is entirely up to you.”

The union is itself in some disarray, following accusations that some board members had been involved in embezzlement.

A previous cabin crew strike planned for October was called off shortly before it was due to start.

Some of the affected passengers were planning to travel to Germany for the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on Saturday.