Travel misery as Lufthansa strike enters third day

[rooster59]

Travel misery as Lufthansa strike enters third day

 

 

A strike by Lufthansa pilots has entered its third day, and is affecting around 100,000 passengers after 850 more flights were cancelled.

 

Eighteen hundred flights had already been cancelled causing misery for travellers.

 

Lufthansa said on Friday it had made a new offer to try and break the deadlock, including a pay rise of 4.4 percent and plans to create new jobs.

 

The airline said it had offered to create 1,000 jobs for junior pilots and up to 600 pilot traineeships over the next five years.

 

The union has yet to respond to the offer, but it had been demanding an average annual pay increase of 3.7 percent for 5,400 pilots in Germany over a five-year period.

 

The walkout – the 14th since early 2014 – began on Wednesday and has already grounded some 2,600 planes and affected more than 315,000 passengers. Lufthansa has said the disruption has started to hit medium-term bookings.

 

A Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union spokesman defended the disruption to travel.

 

“As this affects many people, many clients, it would of course be very, very desirable to be able to end this conflict in a different manner. But for that you need a compromise, and compromise is only possible when one is prepared to move in the direction of the other party,” Joerg Handwerg said.

 

At Frankfurt airport one man described how his tour group was being treated.

 

“We are a large group and now we have to divide ourselves onto three different planes so that we will probably only arrive this evening,” the man said.

Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr has said the carrier’s future would be on the line if pilots’ wages were raised to the level demanded.

 

The airline says it must cut costs to compete with its leaner rival such as short haul budger carrier Ryanair and long haul carriers such as Emirates.

 

Lufthansa pilots are well paid by industry standards. A pilot at Lufthansa earns on average 180,000 euros a year before tax, though a captain on the highest pay level can earn as much as 22,000 euros a month before tax.

 

 

-- © Copyright Euronews 2016-11-26

[Aachen]

There are many other airlines even with kind staff and good service.

[elgordo38]

Hmm seem well paid where is the beef. They seem to be eating steak even at its high price today. What do they do take off turn on the auto pilot and look at girlie magazines and once in a while say "This is the captain speaking the weather blah blah blah". We seem to live in a more and more world unless the cost of living is much higher in Germany I think they are doing OK. Seems some workers in the US must fight for $15 an hour. Geeze I never made even 50,000 Euro's a year. Are we entering a world wide class system?

Edited November 26, 2016 by elgordo38

[OMGImInPattaya]

Another reason to fly Emirates, with their non-unionized workforce; and another nail in the coffin of European aviation.

[Xircal]

1 hour ago, OMGImInPattaya said:

Another reason to fly Emirates, with their non-unionized workforce; and another nail in the coffin of European aviation.

 

Yes, Emirates is a good airline and especially so since it supports Airbus, an excellent European aircraft manufacturer: http://www.thenational.ae/business/aviation/emirates-to-buy-more-airbus-a380s-even-if-neo-version-is-shelved

[OMGImInPattaya]

15 minutes ago, Xircal said:

 

Yes, Emirates is a good airline and especially so since it supports Airbus, an excellent European aircraft manufacturer: http://www.thenational.ae/business/aviation/emirates-to-buy-more-airbus-a380s-even-if-neo-version-is-shelved

My reference was to the main European national carriers, which are in a death match with the ME-3.

Edited November 26, 2016 by OMGImInPattaya

[impulse]

5 hours ago, elgordo38 said:

Hmm seem well paid where is the beef. They seem to be eating steak even at its high price today. What do they do take off turn on the auto pilot and look at girlie magazines and once in a while say "This is the captain speaking the weather blah blah blah". We seem to live in a more and more world unless the cost of living is much higher in Germany I think they are doing OK. Seems some workers in the US must fight for $15 an hour. Geeze I never made even 50,000 Euro's a year. Are we entering a world wide class system?

 

Or they can go to work in China for $300K and leave their Euro employers in a real pickle with not enough pilots to meet world demand over the next decades.  Try running an airline without pilots.  A few points a year to keep them from bailing may look real cheap- in retrospect after it's too late.

 

http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/15/news/economy/china-airlines-foreign-pilots-pay/index.html

 

Strangely, the managers, which are in over-abundance around the world, have made bigger pay raises than the rank and file -while the company cries poverty- all at a time when they're making record profits.

 

 

Edited November 26, 2016 by impulse

[elgordo38]

1 hour ago, impulse said:

 

Or they can go to work in China for $300K and leave their Euro employers in a real pickle with not enough pilots to meet world demand over the next decades.  Try running an airline without pilots.  A few points a year to keep them from bailing may look real cheap- in retrospect after it's too late.

 

http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/15/news/economy/china-airlines-foreign-pilots-pay/index.html

 

Strangely, the managers, which are in over-abundance around the world, have made bigger pay raises than the rank and file -while the company cries poverty- all at a time when they're making record profits.

 

 

Again I am informed of a side I did not consider. One thing I find unusual is that you say China pays its pilots $300,000 a year. China is not known to overpay anyone but according to Google your right

Chinese Airlines Are Offering Pilots $318,000 to Fly Their Planes

[Grouse]

19 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

Again I am informed of a side I did not consider. One thing I find unusual is that you say China pays its pilots $300,000 a year. China is not known to overpay anyone but according to Google your right

Chinese Airlines Are Offering Pilots $318,000 to Fly Their Planes

 

Yep! Supply and demand!

 

My son is a Airbus A321 captain for an E Asia airline and I can confirm the salaries. Massive growth in demand for pilots.

[elgordo38]

3 minutes ago, Grouse said:

 

Yep! Supply and demand!

 

My son is a Airbus A321 captain for an E Asia airline and I can confirm the salaries. Massive growth in demand for pilots.

Good oh to him for making a clever choice I hope your proud. Life I have found is full of T turns and Y's where one must choose the right path right or left. Life is all about choices and direction. Looking back I was able to avoid many of life's minefields. Just amazing. 

[Grouse]

3 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

Good oh to him for making a clever choice I hope your proud. Life I have found is full of T turns and Y's where one must choose the right path right or left. Life is all about choices and direction. Looking back I was able to avoid many of life's minefields. Just amazing. 

 

Thanks! I do indeed suffer from proud father syndrome!