Flights brought to a halt in Germany after airport staff strike
Thousands of scheduled flights have been cancelled as a result of two separate pay disputes.
A one-day strike by workers at 13 German airports, including the Frankfurt and Munich hubs and all the country’s other main destinations, has caused the cancellation of most flights on Monday.
The 24-hour walkout, which started at midnight on Sunday, involves public-sector employees at the airports as well as ground and security staff.
At Frankfurt Airport, 1,054 of the day’s 1,116 scheduled take-offs and landings had been cancelled, German news agency dpa reported, citing airport traffic management.
All of Berlin Airport’s regular departures and arrivals were cancelled, while Hamburg Airport said no departures would be possible.
Cologne/Bonn Airport said there was no regular passenger service and Munich Airport advised travellers to expect a “greatly reduced flight schedule”.
The ver.di service workers union’s strike also targeted the Bremen, Hannover, Dusseldorf, Dortmund, Leipzig/Halle and Stuttgart airports. At the smaller Weeze and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden airports, only security workers were called out.
The German airports’ association, ADV, estimated that more than 3,500 flights in total would be cancelled with some 560,000 passengers affected.
The union announced the strike last Friday. But at Hamburg Airport, it added a short-notice walkout on Sunday to the strike on Monday, arguing that it must ensure the measure was effective.
The so-called “warning strike”, a common tactic in German wage negotiations, relates to two separate pay disputes: negotiations on a new pay and conditions contract for airport security workers, and a wider dispute over pay for employees of federal and municipal governments.
The latter already has led to walkouts at Cologne/Bonn, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Munich airports.
Pay talks in that dispute are due to resume on Friday, while the next round of talks for airport security workers is expected to start on March 26.
