With staffing shortages and travel surging, airline unions are experiencing newfound leverage. And these shortages have been especially acute in Europe.
London Heathrow refueling staff just called off a strike. British Airways had also faced a strike of its Heathrow check-in staff, forestalled by a pay increase. Air France KLM’s Transavia flight attendants threatened to strike. Scandinavian entered a strategic bankruptcy n the face of a pilots strike.
Now Lufthansa is being forced to cancel nearly all of its flights starting on Wednesday as ground crew prepare to strike. The job action is expected to cripple the German flag carrier’s operations at Frankfurt and Munich, lasting through the weekend.
Europe’s biggest airline will cancel more than 1,000 flights in the two cities, warning that the disruption may linger into the weekend, when travel is due to pick up. There’s only very limited scope to rebook passengers whose trips have been canceled, Lufthansa said in a statement.
With passengers capped at London Heathrow there are fewer options for passengers to travel to and from Europe, and connect within the continent. If you can rebook travel in advance that seems wise, no matter how this works out.
(HT: @crucker)
