Lufthansa gets back on track after strikes
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Lufthansa will be getting its schedule up and running again from tonight after suffering from three days of pilot strikes.
The German carrier was forced to cancel 90% of its flights in the last three days but will resume a near-full schedule from tonight. The first of its resumed services will land in Germany from the US and Asia on Saturday morning.
Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Werner Knorr, chief pilot and head of operations Frankfurt for Lufthansa said 40 flights have been cancelled during the weekend as its aircraft and crew are repositioned.
Kay Kratky, chief operating officer Lufthansa German Airlines and responsible for the Frankfurt hub said the strikes are due to cost the group between EUR35-75 million (GBP28m-62m). The airline is looking to meet with the pilots union soon to avoid more disruption.
He expressed ‘mixed feelings’ for the industrial action after praising the teams for their handling customer enquiries and re-bookings.
Around 20,000 travelled by train with free tickets from the airline, while the unaffected Lufthansa Group members and its fellow Star Alliance members helped to carry some passengers to destinations.
More than 25,000 tickets have been rebooked online, with the strikes thought to have affected 425,000 people.
Call volumes soared to 80,000 and 25,000 on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, up from an average 4,000 calls a day.
“We could not avoid the long waiting times at this time due to a high volume of calls but our preparation and cancelling the flights had a positive impact under the circumstances,” Kratky said
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