Planes operated by German airline Lufthansa sit on the tarmac at Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt am Main, on April 10, 2026 as cabin crews went on strike over an ongoing labour dispute. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP)
Frankfurt, Germany: The union which called a strike among crew at the Lufthansa Group said Friday that the walkout had led to about 90 percent of flights being cancelled at two of its airlines.
The chief negotiator for the UFO union Harry Jaeger told AFP that "almost all" flights of the Lufthansa brand and the CityLine subsidiary were cancelled.
Participation in the strike, called in a dispute over working conditions, had been "enormous", he said.
Lufthansa itself said only that "more than a third of flights of Lufthansa Airlines" were still running, but this includes flights operated under brands not hit by the strike such as Austrian Airlines and Eurowings.
The company says that it expects to run "virtually a full number of flights" on Saturday but that "some isolated cancellations and delays are possible".
A spokeswoman for Frankfurt airport, Germany's largest, said that "around 580" flights had been cancelled, including cancellations by other airlines for different reasons.
At Munich airport the number was 400.
Friday's strike is the fourth stoppage Lufthansa has experienced this year and comes at a key travel period as Easter holidays draw to a close in most regions of Germany.
UFO called the strike saying that there had not been enough progress made on issues such as "avoiding overwork" and lengthening redundancy notice periods.
Lufthansa for its part called on the union to return to negotiations, saying that "only dialogue" can lead to "lasting solutions".
On February 12 almost 800 Lufthansa flights were cancelled, affecting around 100,000 passengers, when pilots and cabin crew staged a strike in a pensions dispute.
A month later another pilots' two-day strike over pensions saw around half of the airline's flights grounded.
