Hundreds of Lufthansa flights grounded on second day of strike
Lufthansa flight attendants will broaden their two-city strike to Munich on Monday, grounding 929 flights and about 113,000 passengers, according to the German airline.
The walkout, launched on Friday by the flight attendants union Ufo to try to secure retirement benefits, hit the Frankfurt and Dusseldorf airports during its first two days, cancelling 800 flights and affecting more than 95,000 travellers.
Sunday's operations returned largely to normal, Lufthansa said, after flight attendants declared an intermission in their strike, which is to continue through Friday in what is to be the longest walkout in the airline's history.
"Our guests must assume that their flights with Lufthansa will be cancelled through Friday," Ufo's Nicoley Baublies said.
The union has had no contact with Lufthansa since emergency talks that the airline called on Thursday to try to avoid the strike, he said.
Salary negotiations involving 19,000 of the airline's cabin crew have been going on for two years.
Lufthansa wants to lower retirement benefits for staff it hires in the future, link benefits to market returns on investment and restrict the practice of taking early retirement at 55.
The union insists on retaining many of its benefits long-term.
Lufthansa has been beset this year with repeated strikes by pilots and now Ufo as it fights to compete with budget carriers.
Munich's airport was initially spared from the flight attendants strike because the autumn school holiday was ending in the southern state of Bavaria.
Flights on Lufthansa subsidiaries - Air Dolomiti, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Germanwings, Lufthansa CityLine und Swiss - are not affected by the latest walkout.
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