If you’re flying Lufthansa today in Europe, you may be sleeping on a cot tonight. The airline today had to prep for a strike announced last night by its largest pilots’ union. Media outlets including the BBC News and more recently the Wall Street Journal have published articles about the strike today. The WSJ tells us the latest strike stems from “a long-running conflict over retirement benefits.”
The airline says in a statement that the strike will impact German and European flights from Frankfurt between 5 pm and 11 pm today, Sept. 5, and it had to cancel more than 200 flights. Lufthansa estimates that more than 25,000 passengers will be affected. Long-haul flights weren’t affected. The airline said that it sent out 14,000 text messages to registered customers.
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Lufthansa booked 2,200 hotel rooms in the Rhine-Main area in addition to setting up cots at the airport. The cots can help people who are in transit to another destination and are not allowed to enter Germany for visa reasons, the airline said.
“Today the staff at the station in Frankfurt are focusing on providing the best possible assistance for passengers,” the airline said in a statement.
Travelers: If you’re stranded due to the strike, please tell us about your experience in the comments section below. If you’ve ever been stranded due to another strike, tell us how it went.
