Lufthansa Strike Today (MO 22/APR/2013)

[Jona L.]

http://www.lufthansa.com/de/en/Travel-information

Due to the announced strike actions on Monday, 22 April, nearly all Lufthansa flights within Germany and Europe will be cancelled. Only a select few short-haul flights will operate on Monday, such as in Berlin, where strike actions should end by 2:30pm CET. In all, only 20 of the 1,650 planned Lufthansa short-haul flights on Monday will operate due to the limited flight schedule.

In addition to the cancellations in Germany and Europe, massive flight cancellations and delays are to be expected for long-haul flights beginning Sunday April, 21. Of the 50 planned flights in Frankfurt, only six will operate; in Munich, of the 17 planned flights, only three will operate; whereas, in Dusseldorf all three long-haul flights are scheduled to operate as planned.

98.2% cancellations. In AWS your CI would be dead immediately LOL.

I hope the guys have success, since they strike against the closure of all German DLH bases except FRA and MUC (and LH from DUS will remain as DLH), asides other reasons.
The flights shall (from MAY/2014 onwards) be "operated by Eurowings/Germanwings/Lufthansa Regional"; DLHs low cost subsidiaries. This would cost something upwards of 5000 people losing their jobs in favor of cheaper staff from 4U and EW.

For me personally that would mean, that DUS loses everything it is worth now, if there is no more decent Lufthansa presence... same as HAM, TXL etc...


cheers,
[SC] Jona L.

[Infinity]

For me personally that would mean, that DUS loses everything it is worth now, if there is no more decent Lufthansa presence... same as HAM, TXL etc...

Yea, definitely makes much more sense to let them run towards bankruptcy at full steam (or full cost for that matter). Why save money to become/stay competitive, who cares for the cost base of a company as long as they have a shiny logo.

[Jona L.]

Yea, definitely makes much more sense to let them run towards bankruptcy at full steam (or full cost for that matter). Why save money to become/stay competitive, who cares for the cost base of a company as long as they have a shiny logo.

Well, if Lufthansa had planned on using the base in DUS, they could have made a killing in the ME and Turkey market going year round. But the cash has gone past Lufthansa already an opportunity they missed.

But what kind of a "package" is this... Say you are going from TXL to ORD via DUS in C-class. And you get your TXL-DUS flight on Germanwings?! like WHAT THE F*KK?! Pay for a lousy sandwich?! Pay for drinks?!

Oh well... the good old days when flying was "something" are long gone... Thank you Ryanair and Easyjet and the rest of them LCCs.

[Infinity]

And you get your TXL-DUS flight on Germanwings?! like WHAT THE F*KK?!

What's so different about connecting with 4U from connecting with CityLine? Nothing, that's what. Besides, the Long Haul in DUS is mainly designed to cater O/D demand, it does not have terribly much connecting traffic.
If anyone feels that connecting via DUS with Germanwings is beneath him, he is free to chose a flight to any of the destinations served from DUS via FRA or MUC and also get a Lufthansa connection.
So you see, the rebranding does not take away the ability to chose, quite on the contrary actually, through the lower cost base of Germanwings Lufthansa ensures that you retain the ability to chose a Lufthansa product also in off center short haul markets, which would otherwise have been cancelled altogether.

[schro]

Maybe the premise of the strike isn't understood by me, but by reading the above, I get the following -

1. LH wants to lower costs by replacing mainline LH ground staff with lower cost subsidiaries for a number of airports. Presumably, management has done a full analysis of the revenue impact this will have and has determined that the company will be best off with the decided upon approach.

2. Ground workers don't want a paycut, therefore, they decide that they know more than management does about how to run a company and decide that striking is the way to inform management that management is wrong.

3. Striking and shenanigans ensues.

What have I missed?

[stevecree]

Businesses need to do what is best for the company...if that means 4U in DUS, TXL, HAM etc then so be it, good on LH for sorting their ship out.

LH has to compete with numerous locos and cannot do so with mainline. Times change !  

You want to be glad you will still have 4U at DUS....BA closed MAN and BHX and left us with little replacement.

[dmoose42]

What is the purpose of striking anyway - I thought strikes were for improving working conditions and whatnot.  Is Lufthansa mistreating its employees or something?

[jamier]

The ground workers also rejected a 5.2% pay RISE over the next 12 months.

[exchlbg]

As sad as it is for LH staff at the smaller german airports, I think their strike is only positioning for  better conditions in transit from mainline to GermanWings, it won´t change the main decisions of management to focus mainline traffic to FRA and MUC, especially because this process has started some time ago and won´t be reversed.Just another view onto your arguments: LH should start competing in LC leisure and family traffic to Turkey? I don´t think this could fit into strategy to focus on basic tasks of  Germany´s only global airline.
Connecting traffic via DUS ? I think it´s negelectable, main transit traffic is happening in FRA and MUC, especially TXL-ORD traffic will mainly use direct service with Air Berlin.
Personally I don´t care which aircraft/airline  I use for an hour´s flight within Germany, the Lufthansa service doesn´t differ much from competitors and even business travel nowadays trends to observe the costs. Thanks to widespread LLC experience the normal passenger nowadays is used to narrow seating and no complimentary service on short flights, not willing to pay essentially more for a coffee machine in the waiting area and a plastic-packed sandwich during flight.
Many competitors with a sparkling bright history of luxury and first class ego already left the market or lost their image completely. Lufthansa has to change drastically not to follow those into air traffic history books.

[stevecree]

The ground workers also rejected a 5.2% pay RISE over the next 12 months.

Rejected 5.2%...and they strike beggars belief !  Need to open their eyes and take a look at the world wide economy.  I'd be glad of half that increase.

[ban2]

what's a "pay rise" ??

[MRFREAK]

what's a "pay rise" ??

A  raise.

You know, when you get more salary. 

[ban2]

i hate celery

[swiftus27]

Celery with peanut butter and raisins is delicious... called Ants on a Log.

[dmoose42]

we should deliver some to the people on strike.  I bet they are hungry.

[Dasha]

So because they are afraid they can't work anymore in the future... they stop working today?


Makes sense...   

Glad you Germans are better at football than at striking

[brique]

I was always fond of the Barcelona bus-workers strikes... they still worked, still ran the services... they just neglected to collect any fares...

[Dasha]

For Germans who are on strike, they played some pretty good football people. I see a certain link...


Spain's been on strike for 13 years and they always won with football. Now Germany goes on strike and look what happens.... 

[ban2]

I was always fond of the Barcelona bus-workers strikes... they still worked, still ran the services... they just neglected to collect any fares...

now that's clever thinking