Germany's largest airline group has publicly pushed back against a union-organised walkout set for Thursday, describing the action as an avoidable intensification of an ongoing dispute. Company human resources chief Michael Niggemann criticised the move and said the disagreements can only be resolved at the negotiating table.
Niggemann said that demands aimed at Lufthansa's namesake core carrier were excessive and that the core airline "simply has no financial leeway" to grant the requested concessions. His remarks came as unions pressed ahead with strike plans, underscoring long-running tensions between the company and labour groups as Lufthansa pursues cost cuts and higher profitability.
The German pilots' union VC has called a 24-hour strike at Lufthansa's core airline and at Lufthansa Cargo, targeting all flights departing from German airports on Thursday, according to a VC statement. The union said its members voted in a ballot last year to authorise strike action to push the airline for more generous retirement benefits; talks aimed at resolving the pension dispute have resumed intermittently but have not produced an agreement.
Lufthansa warned the walkout could potentially affect tens of thousands of passengers, signalling significant short-term disruption to scheduled operations. The company framed the strike as an escalation that was unnecessary given the ongoing, if sporadic, negotiations.
In a related move, the UFO union representing flight attendants urged its CityLine members to take strike action on Thursday in response to the planned shutdown of CityLine flight operations and what the union described as the employer's continued refusal to negotiate a collective social plan. The CityLine action reflects separate but overlapping labour pressure within the Lufthansa group.
Talks between the parties have continued intermittently, but the lack of a durable resolution to the pension dispute and the dispute over CityLine's future operations means industrial action remains a tool unions are willing to deploy. The immediate effect is slated to be disruption to flights out of Germany on Thursday; beyond that, the outcome of further negotiations remains unclear.