On March 12 and 13, the flights of the German national carrier Luftnasa from and to Sofia will be canceled. There will be no flights between the Bulgarian capital and the German cities of Munich and Frankfurt. The reason is the two-day strike by the pilots of the German national carrier.
600 flights will be affected worldwide. According to the pilots' and flight attendants' union Vereinigung Cockpit, the company will not be able to operate 300 flights on each day of the strike. However, the carrier promises to operate at least half of its flights despite the strike and up to 60% of its long-haul flights as scheduled. To achieve this, it will use larger aircraft and draw on resources from Lufthansa Group airlines not affected by the strike.
On Tuesday, a union called a strike for just over 5,000 pilots at Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and Lufthansa Cityline. Employees at the former two airlines are demanding higher pensions, while those at the latter are demanding higher wages. The strike is scheduled to end at midnight on Friday.
This is the second strike in the ongoing labor dispute at Lufthansa. On February 12, pilots walked off the job for a day, causing the cancellation of more than 800 flights and affecting approximately 100,000 passengers.