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The
crew threatened more walkouts next week.
Thursday's strike at Duesseldorf, Cologne, Dortmund, Hanover,
Stuttgart, Berlin and Hamburg airports is due to last for 24
hours until midnight (2200 GMT). The Lufthansa brand's main hubs
of Frankfurt and Munich are not affected.
Lufthansa cabin crew and pilots have embarked on a series of
strikes over the last few years as the airline battles to reduce
costs in order to compete with low-cost rivals and long-haul
carriers with leaner cost bases.
The current strike was called after new contracts talks
collapsed between Eurowings, a regional carrier that Lufthansa
is using as a basis to expand its budget offering, and cabin
crew union UFO.
Increasing pressure on the group, the union also called a strike
for staff at Germanwings, which is being merged with Eurowings.
It cited a lack of agreement on part-time contracts, which
Eurowings described as absurd.
Altogether Eurowings has canceled almost 400 flights, primarily
short-haul flights in Germany and Europe, out of around 550
planned for Thursday.
At Duesseldorf airport, queues formed as passengers sought to
rebook tickets. One passenger, Dick van der Aart, said he was
irritated. "I got up very early and now I'm standing in a queue.
Yes, I'm annoyed," he told Reuters.
Union UFO has been trying to agree new contracts for Eurowings
staff in Germany for two years and has been threatening
industrial action for weeks. The union on Thursday threatened
further strikes for next week.
"If the employer's behavior doesn't change, we will strike on
two days next week," UFO representative Daniel Flohr told
Reuters, without saying on which days or at which carriers the
walkouts could take place.
Eurowings, which put forward a new offer last week that includes
an average pay increase of around 7 percent, said in response
that the airline was prepared to resume talks at any time.
(Reporting by Victoria Bryan, Peter Maushagen and Reuters TV;
Additional reporting by Matthias Inverardi; Editing by Georgina
Prodhan)
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