Lufthansa pilots strike for 2 days, cabin crew will follow

Pilots with Germany's flagship carrier Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and subsidiary Eurowings began a 48-hour strike on Monday morning. The airline is also facing a cabin crew work stoppage right after the pilots end their strike.

Lufthansa is struggling to negotiate terms both with the pilots' trade union Vereinigung Cockpit and the UFO cabin crew union that called on members to strike just last week. 

On Monday afternoon, UFO said that it had called on its members to strike again on Wednesday and Thursday of this week, meaning Lufthansa could face four consecutive days of disruptions. 

Hundreds of flights were canceled on Monday, with the major hubs of Frankfurt and Munich hit hardest, in the fourth strike of 2026 at the airline.

Middle Eastern flights are exempt from the strike, amid the ongoing conflict in Iran and the Gulf.

Which flights and services were set to be affected by the strike? 

The homepage of Frankfurt Airport, Germany's busiest, showed the majority of Lufthansa departures within Europe as canceled on Monday.

Several domestic German flights were indicated as replacement rail services instead. 

"As a result of the strikes at Lufthansa by the pilots' trade union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), there will be delays and cancellations for Lufthansa flights all day on April 13 and 14 at Frankfurt Airport," the hub said in a statement. 

The next busiest airport, Munich, appeared to be showing only the flights still scheduled in its departures search window. But it included a warning to Lufthansa and Eurowings passengers of severe strike-related disruptions, telling them to check with their providers for news of cancellations. 

Eurowings pilots are only striking on Monday, not Tuesday, while Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo pilots with the Cockpit union have been told to strike for two days. Eurowings had said on Sunday that it expected to be able to keep "a large part" of services in the air despite the strike. 

Not all pilots with Lufthansa's airlines are VC members and complete participation in the strike is also not guaranteed.

Middle Eastern flights exempt amid Iran and Gulf conflict 

The VC union said that it would not strike on those flights still able to depart to an array of destinations in the Middle East, given the travel uncertaintly caused for more than a month now by the conflict in Iran and the wider region. 

Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cityline flights from Germany to Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Egpyt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen would all be exempt from the strike action, according to VC.

What did the airline and the union say about the latest strike? 

"Lufthansa is working intensively to keep the impact on our passengers as low as possible. We are trying to have as many flights as possible operated by other airlines within the Lufthansa Group and by partner airlines," Lufthansa said on its website.

It also advised passengers whose flights were canceled altogether that they could exchange their tickets for Deutsche Bahn rail tickets. 

The pilots' strike center on pay disputes, including the company pension scheme and remuneration at the regional subsidiary CityLine.

The airline criticized VC's decision to strike, a few days after it announced a deal for both pilots and ground staff with rival trade union Verdi as its negotiations with specialist unions VC and UFO degenerate into repeated strikes.

It said that the union's core demand "for the doubling of an already above-average and excellent company pension plan is absurd and unfulfillable." 

VC, meanwhile, laid much of the blame with Lufthansa. 

"Vereinigung Cockpit sees itself as forced into this step, after the employer showed no recognizable willingness for a solution in several wage disputes," VC President Andreas Pinheiro said. "Despite consciously refraining from strike action over the Easter bank holidays, offers worth taking seriously are still not forthcoming. In this time there was neither a reaction nor recognizable signs of a willingness to negotiate from the employer's side."

Cabin crews to follow suit and strike again on Wednesday, Thursday

Early on Monday evening, the UFO trade union announced that its latest strike would follow immediatedly after Cockpit's members return to work. 

It said that it would strike for two days starting at the stroke of midnight on Wednesday and running until 11:59 p.m. on Thursday. 

"The strike on Friday was a clear signal," Harry Jaeger, UFO's chief negotiator, said. "If the employer does not respond to it, then this signal will necessarily get louder." 

Jaeger said the high member participation on Friday "impressed us very much — and shows extremely clearly that the cabin crew will not allow themselves to be played for fools." He accused Lufthansa of having "adopted a hardline position." 

VC and UFO have already coordinated once this year to strike at the same time. Assuming that this week's strike plans hold, by the end of Thursday, Lufthansa will have faced strike action from one of the two unions on five consecutive workdays. 

Edited by: Louis Oelofse