Lufthansa: Second strike averted as pilots, airline near deal

Pilots had been planning a two-day strike over wages unless the airline came up with a "serious offer." A similar strike last week stranded some 130,000 passengers.

Germany's Lufthansa airline narrowly avoided a second round of pilot strikes on Tuesday.

"An agreement has been reached" over wages, the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union said. This was later confirmed by Lufthansa executives who added that the agreement was not final, but was sufficient to delay the most imminent threat of strikes.

The union had threatened a two-day action, set to start on Wednesday, unless a "serious offer" was made. Lufthansa then accused the union of "continuing on the path of escalation."

Pilots had already paralyzed Lufthansa's core operations on Friday last week after negotiations on a new collective agreement had failed. The all-day pilots' strike brought almost all flight operations to a halt. Around 130,000 passengers were affected by the cancellation of more than 800 flights. Lufthansa said the action cost it €32 million ($32 million).

A final new agreement has not been reached, according to Lufthansa. However, the union has agreed to call off the strike as both sides continue to negotiate ahead of revealing new proposals on Friday.

What were the pilots demanding?

Vereinigung Cockpit said last week it was demanding a 5.5% pay rise for its more than 5,000 pilots alongside automatic inflation adjustments for 2023.

Spokesperson Matthias Baier said they hadn't received a "sufficient offer" on Thursday, calling it a "sobering and missed opportunity" on side of Lufthansa.

Lufthansa published details of the offer it said the trade union had walked away from. The last offer proposed a blanket increase of €900 per employee.

The company said this would signify an increase of 15% for pilots early in their career and 5% for experienced captains, based on salaries from the latest 18 months.

The airline was arguing that VC's demands would increase staff costs in the cockpit by 40%, describing the increase as "unreasonable," as it doesn't take into account the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. During the pandemic, Lufthansa was granted a €9 billion ($8.9 billion) bailout by the German government as it narrowly avoided bankruptcy. However, it was able to pay back the bailout at the end of 2021.

dh,es/rt (dpa, Reuters)