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WEATHER

Passengers wait out airport delays

An estimated 6,000 to 7,000 passengers have been affected by delays at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport on Monday as a major snow storm hit the capital and left only one runway in use.

Passengers wait out airport delays

The majority of flights are delayed by around two hours, though the airport is urging passengers to arrive on time for their scheduled flights unless advised otherwise by their airline.

Up to date departure and arrival times can be found at the airport’s website.

The situation at the airport remained calm on Monday afternoon with most people sitting in the cafes and restaurants and waiting out the delay.

The general attitude is stoical, and most passengers The Local spoke to were not blaming the airport authorities.

“I’m delayed by two hours – so far – and there’s not much to do. I’m just having a sandwich, making a couple of calls and am planning on starting my laptop in a minute. I’m not too irritated,” said Lennart Christensson, flying to Berlin with Air Berlin on business for his company Transmotec, an electronics component company.

“When there’s so much snow, combined with wind, then this sort of thing happens. It would have been impractical to always have enough ground staff on standby to prevent it.”

“There are too few places to sit and work, but that’s the same in airports all over the world. They could have made internet connections free, though – that’s the least an airport can do in situations like this.”

Papa Ibrahima Diallo sat with his family outside a bookshop in Terminal 2 while waiting for a flight to Paris with Norwegian.

“We’re supposed to be flying at 13.30 and we’re officially half an hour delayed, but it might be more as we still haven’t got a gate. All you can do it wait and drink coffee. My son is just a toddler, but so far he’s doing OK.”

Sara from Uppsala, flying to Paris with SAS, said she was “a bit stressed” from standing around and watiing.

“We drove here from Uppsala, which was awful – we were doing 40-50 km/h all the way and could barely see the road. I was supposed to fly at 11.25, but so far I’ve been 2 hours delayed. What makes it worse is that they give so little information – you need to look the whole time. But I’m not cross – I know it’s down to the weather.”

TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of 420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of 2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some 200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of 2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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