Lufthansa Cancels All Friday Flights From Frankfurt and Munich Because of Pilots' Strike

Lufthansa on Wednesday said it was canceling almost all of its passenger flights scheduled for Friday from its two biggest hubs, Frankfurt and Munich, because of a planned strike by its pilots.

According to FlightAware, as of Thursday morning, 600 flights had already been canceled by Lufthansa, and that number is expected to reach 800, the carrier said. The cancellations will affect Lufthansa and not its sister carrier Eurowings.

The union is reportedly staging a walkout after negotiations with Lufthansa failed again. Matthias Baier, a spokesperson for the Cockpit Association, an organization representing European pilots, called the failed negotiations “a missed opportunity.”

“The only thing left for us to do is reinforce our demands with a labor dispute,” he said in a statement.

The plan for the pilots union now is to go on strike on Sept. 2 from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. After that, more negotiations could occur but Marcel Gröls, the chairman of Vereinigung Cockpit, said that talks are “too far apart at the moment” so more travel disruptions could come.

It has been a summer of disruption for so many travelers going through European airports. Staffing issues and strikes and work stoppages have made the return-to-travel chaotic. Some other strike actions this summer included the SAS pilots' strike, which resulted in the cancellations of close to 4,000 flights over its almost two-week duration, and, outside of Europe, a WestJet workers strike at two of Canada’s major airports.

Vereinigung Cockpit had hinted earlier in the summer that a pilot strike at Frankfurt and Munich could occur should negotiations with Lufthansa not go well.