Hundreds of flights axed as fresh strike hits German airports

FRANKFURT(Germany): Hundreds of flights were cancelled at eight German airports on Tuesday, including at the nation’s busiest travel hub Frankfurt, as security staff walked off the job in a deepening row over pay.

Germany’s powerful Verdi union said the strike would last from 2am until 8pm (0100-1900 GMT) at Frankfurt airport, with walkouts in Munich, Hanover, Bremen, Hamburg, Leipzig, Dresden and Erfurt following roughly the same schedule.

At least 220,000 travellers would be hit by cancellations and delays, the ADV airport association said, in a calculation that includes knock-on effects at other airports. Frankfurt airport operator Fraport, which axed 617 out of around 1,200 scheduled flights, urged passengers not to come to Europe’s fourth-busiest airport during the strike.

“Security doesn’t come free,” read a banner held aloft by Verdi members demonstrating at the airport, clad in yellow high-visibility jackets. German passenger Brigitte Inhof said that she was going to have to travel by bus to a different airport to catch a flight to the Turkish resort of Antalya.

“I should have flown direct from Frankfurt to Antalya, now I have to make my way to Stuttgart,” she said. At Munich airport, Germany’s second largest, a spokeswoman said around 100, mainly domestic, flights were cancelled.

The coordinated industrial action marks a major escalation in Verdi’s dispute with employers, following walkouts at Berlin’s airports last Monday and in Stuttgart, Cologne/Bonn and Duesseldorf last Thursday. Germany’s flagship carrier Lufthansa accused Verdi of ramping up tensions “to an unacceptable extent” while the ADV association blasted the wave of strikes as “irresponsible”.

Full story @ timesofoman.com/world