By Laura Fleischmann
Published on •Updated
Lufthansa cancelled hundreds of flights across Germany on Thursday as pilots and cabin crew staged a coordinated 24-hour strike in disputes over pensions and job security.
The walkout began at 12:01 am and runs until 11:59 pm, affecting all departures from German airports including major hubs in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin.
The strike involves approximately 4,800 pilots represented by Vereinigung Cockpit union and around 20,000 cabin crew members organised by the Unabhängige Flugbegleiter Organisation, who are conducting parallel actions over separate disputes.
Lufthansa did not specify how many flights would be cancelled but said it expects extensive disruptions. The airline’s cargo division and regional subsidiary CityLine are also affected.
Airlines outside the Lufthansa Group, including Ryanair, Easyjet and Condor, continue operating normally. Within the group, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, ITA Airways, Eurowings and Discover are not part of the strike call and will fly as scheduled.
Lufthansa said it expects to resume normal flight operations from Friday.
What travellers should know
Affected passengers will be automatically rebooked if alternatives are available, with information sent by email. The airline urged travellers to check their flight status online before heading to airports.
For domestic German routes, passengers can exchange their flight tickets for Deutsche Bahn train tickets free of charge.
Under European Union regulations, passengers may be entitled to compensation payments of between €250 and €600 for short-term cancellations or significant delays, as company strikes are not considered “extraordinary circumstances” under EU law.
Passengers are also entitled to free replacement transport or ticket refunds, catering, hotel accommodation if needed, and can cancel their booking if delays exceed five hours.
Lufthansa in the red
The pilots’ union is demanding higher employer contributions to company pension and transitional pension schemes after seven rounds of negotiations failed to produce an agreement.
The cabin crew union is seeking new collective labour agreements and has expressed concern that hundreds of jobs at CityLine are threatened by the group’s strategy of shifting operations to lower-cost subsidiaries. The union is demanding a collectively agreed redundancy plan.
Lufthansa’s head of human resources Michael Niggemann called the strike a “completely unnecessary escalation” and said further cost increases are not acceptable given the company’s economic situation.
The strike comes as Lufthansa Airlines pursues a turnaround programme with more than 700 identified measures, of which over 350 are already being implemented.
The programme aims to deliver earnings improvements of €1.5 billion in 2026 and €2.5 billion by 2028.
The Lufthansa Group’s passenger airlines posted an adjusted operating loss of €244 million in the first half of 2025, an improvement from the previous year.
The company has set targets of achieving an adjusted operating margin of 8%-10% by 2028-2030.