Pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) announces strike on 9 September 2015 for short & medium haul operations

The pilots’ union, Vereinigung Cockpit, has called a Germany-wide strike on all Lufthansa continental flights for Wednesday, 9 September from 00.01 hours until 23.59 hours CET.

Flights by the Lufthansa Group airlines Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Germanwings and SWISS (operated by OS, SN, EW, 4U, LX) as well as flights by Air Dolomiti (operated by EN) are unaffected by the strike and will operate as scheduled.

On Saturday, September 5th, Lufthansa offered the pilot’s union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) to engage in collective bargaining. Thereby Lufthansa committed to VC’s core demands and asked VC to return to the negotiation table. Last week already, Lufthansa invited VC for further dialogue which VC unfortunately cancelled. 

Lufthansa has issued a special timetable for tomorrow’s strike period. The necessary flight cancellations - which also include long-haul flights departing on Wednesday - have already been made and are published on LH.com.

On Wednesday, 2,000 of 3,000 planned Lufthansa Group flights are expected to operate. Lufthansa’s long-haul network will also see some cancellations tomorrow. 52 of the 176 long-haul services planned for Wednesday will have to be cancelled as a result of the strike action, partly because – as a consequence of today's strike – the aircraft concerned are not yet back where they need to be to operate tomorrow’s services as scheduled.

Continuously updated list of all cancelled Lufthansa flights

All passengers are requested to check the status of their flight at LH.com before setting out on their journey. Lufthansa passengers who have saved their mobile phone number in their customer profile will be notified about relevant cancellations by text message.

Flight status request for individual flights

In the event of flight cancellations, the affected segments will be set as ‘UN’ if possible and appear in your queue. They will include an SSR element: SSR OTHS 1A CNL D/T PILOTS STRIKE.

For technical reasons delays can occur with the ‘UN’ messages. If customers on cancelled flights are rebooked by Lufthansa on to alternative flights, the new segments are apparent in the PNR; the tickets will be revalidated automatically if possible. If no revalidation is possible (e.g. in the case of a route change), Lufthansa will automatically reissue a ticket. If your customer requests another alternative and a new reissue is required, please contact your Lufthansa Sales & Service Team. Please note: no ‘UN’ is set for flights cancelled on the departure day.

Customers affected by a flight cancellation can rebook free of charge or have their ticket refunded. You are welcome to make rebookings/reissues for cancelled Lufthansa flights yourself in accordance with the Lufthansa Standard INVOL rules. You can make the refund on an involuntary basis directly in your GDS.

Passengers travelling within Germany whose Lufthansa flights have been cancelled because of the strike can use Deutsche Bahn trains and issue their own rail voucher either under ‘My Bookings’ on our website LH.com or at a Lufthansa airport check-in machine.

In addition, the following goodwill provision applies: any passenger with a booked Lufthansa flight on an LH document on 8 and 9 September 2015 from/via/to Frankfurt, Munich or Dusseldorf whose flight has not been cancelled and whose ticket has been issued no later than 8 September 2015, may rebook once free of charge.

The following rules apply to these rebookings:

• Rebooking on an alternative Lufthansa Group flight/connection (flight number and operated by: LH, LX, OS, SN, EW, 4U) – in the original booking class or alternatively within the same class of carriage
• New travel date no later than 8 December 2015
• Rebooking on an alternative Lufthansa flight which is operated by another airline – in the original booking class only
• The departure and destination points for the journey must remain unchanged. Exception: rebooking/reissue to an alternative nearby departure/destination airport within Germany, e.g. DUS instead of CGN, HAM instead of HAJ.
• In the case of reissues the endorsement entry should read: 1015

For refunds of tickets that are not affected by flight cancellations, the fare conditions apply.

You can undertake the reissues yourself – a waiver by Lufthansa is not required for cases reissued in accordance with the stated rules.

You will find general information on handling flight irregularities on OS documents here.

You will find general information on handling flight irregularities on LX documents here.

Additional background information and press releases

Lufthansa very much regrets the inconvenience caused by this further strike action and would like to apologise to you and the passengers affected. Please be assured that we are doing everything in our power to keep the effects of the strike to a minimum.