The German pilots union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) said on Wednesday that Lufthansa has rejected an offer to mediate in their ongoing labor dispute.
The news comes as Lufthansa was forced to cancel hundreds of flights in Germany amid ongoing labor unrest by pilots and flight attendants at the national airline company.
Pilot union VC has gone on a 48-hour strike since Monday, affecting not only the Lufthansa brand but the airline’s cargo arm and even a regional carrier called Cityline. Pilots at Eurowings go on strike only on Mondays.
Frankfurt International Airport, Germany’s busiest airport, had 570 take-offs and landings cancelled, most of which belonged to Lufthansa, affecting more than 50,000 passengers.
Recently, Europe’s second-largest airline group reported that two-thirds of its short- and medium-haul flights and half of its long-haul flights were cancelled.
Furthermore, Eurowings, another subsidiary of Lufthansa, flew only less than 60% of its planned routes.
The strike is due to disagreements regarding the company’s pension plan, where the VC is demanding Lufthansa increase contributions beyond 100% and the airline has described the request as “absurd and incomplete”.
As an additional aggravating factor, the UFO Cabin Crew Union began its two-day strike from Wednesday, and thus Lufthansa is facing four consecutive days of strike.
Notably, this strike is the fourth strike by Lufthansa pilots this year.
However, according to the airline, flights to the Middle East will not be affected due to the ongoing conflict in Iran.
Criticizing the unnecessary strike, Lufthansa recommended exchanging tickets for train vouchers to ease passenger inconvenience.
Meanwhile, union representatives, however, attributed the strike to the management’s reluctance to negotiate.
