The Lufthansa holiday airline Discover is doing its best to cushion the impact of its crews’ strikes. However, some flights are still cancelled on the second and third days of the strike.
Lufthansa holiday airline Discover Airlines is cancelling a few flights on the second day of the strike. The reason is the strike by flight crew in the cockpit and cabin, which the unions Ufo and Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) have called for until Friday. At Frankfurt Airport, eight of the 26 take-offs planned for Wednesday were cancelled, and in Munich, according to Discover, a flight to Ibiza was cancelled.
The company expects a similar picture for the third day of the strike on Thursday: A long-haul flight to Philadelphia has been removed from the schedule, as has a return flight to Bodrum in Turkey. There may also be further cancellations from Frankfurt. Two short-haul flights will be taken over by partner airlines again.
A spokeswoman explained that everything was being done to get the affected passengers to their destination. Three short-haul routes were taken over by partner companies on Wednesday, so that there were no changes to the travel plans for the guests. However, the strike, which will last several days, remains a major undertaking for Discover. According to the information, around 270 flights to and from Frankfurt and Munich are planned for the entire strike period.
Sharp criticism of the industrial action
With the four-day strikes, the sector unions rooted in the Lufthansa Group want to enforce their own collective agreements after management agreed on a contract with its competitor Verdi. Verdi only represents a few pilots and flight attendants in the company, claim Ufo and VC. The holiday airline Discover Airlines, founded in 2021, currently has 27 aircraft with which it flies to holiday destinations in Europe and overseas. Around 1,900 people work on board.
The head of the core brand Lufthansa, Jens Ritter, criticized the industrial action. “Our guests are suffering completely unnecessarily,” he said on Tuesday evening, referring to the collective agreement concluded with Verdi, which offers good prospects for the staff. Verdi is the largest union in the Lufthansa Group and is also active in many other airlines. Ritter said: “These strikes are unnecessary and are damaging to Discover Airlines.”
Source: Stern
