Lufthansa pilots have begun their eighth strike this year, forcing the cancellation of 1,511 flights over Monday and Tuesday. The strike was initially aimed at mostly European flights, but will be expanded to international routes on Tuesday, hitting 200,000 passengers.
The airline said it hoped to operate a third of its flights over the two days. Lufthansa said it has cancelled over 1,500 short-haul flights but is confident that it will still be able to operate 700, or one-third of all flights, with management pilots and ‘volunteers’.
The cancellations include dozens of flights between London, Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh and German cities.
The strike by long-haul pilots who fly Lufthansa’s Airbus A380, A340 and A330 aircraft and its Boeing 747s will begin at 6am on Tuesday and end at midnight, according to the union, which represents around 5,400 pilots.
The number of long-haul flights to be cancelled is not yet known. Lufthansa said routes operated by Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Germanwings, SWISS and Air Dolomiti are not affected and will operate as scheduled.
