Flights between Sweden and Germany will grind to a halt because of the strike called by the Verdi union, which represents 33,000 Lufthansa employees. The union and airline management are far from reaching a deal in the current negotiations, with Verdi describing the airline’s latest bid as “scandalous”.
Since Verdi handles ground services at almost all the large German airports, with the exception of Berlin Tegel, the strike will also affect other airlines, including Scandinavian Airlines SAS, which is Lufthansa’s Star Alliance partner.
SAS was notified about the strike on Friday and was forced to cancel 29 return trips between Scandinavia and Germany, six of which would have departed from Sweden.
“All affected SAS passengers have received compensation or the opportunity to rebook their trips,” SAS spokeswoman Rebecka Södergren told news agency TT.
Altogether, 164 Lufthansa and SAS flights to and from Scandinavian locations were cancelled. In Sweden, a total of 18 flights to and from Stockholm and 22 flights to and from Gothenburg were cancelled.
Most of Lufthansa’s 1,700 cancelled flights are short-haul flights. Monday’s walk-out will be the second 24-hour strike to hit Lufthansa in just a month.
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