Frankfurt airport hit by another strike

2012-02-27 14:04

Berlin - Germany's biggest airline Lufthansa AG cancelled 140 flights on Monday as ground workers held another strike at its main hub, Frankfurt airport.

Lufthansa said the cancelled flights were all European and domestic round trips and that international long-haul flights would not be affected by the three-day strike of GdF union employees.

Around 200 workers who oversee tarmac operations are demanding double-digit wage increases from airport operator Fraport. Fraport has sharply criticised GdF demands while the union says it just wants the Frankfurt workers' salaries brought in line with what other airports pay.

In addition to the Lufthansa flights, Fraport spokesperson Juergen Harrer said about 60 other flights had been cancelled on Monday - though he noted that most of the 1 300 daily flights were still running.

"The operations here in Frankfurt are running in an orderly fashion," he said.

Creating disruptions

Union spokesperson Markus Siebert said the strike was not intended to shut the airport down, just to cause enough inconvenience to bring attention to the workers' demands.

"What we don't want is to create chaos," he said. "It is all about creating disruptions and there are a huge number of those."

The strike started at 21:00 on Sunday (local time) and is to last until 05:00 on Thursday. It follows a three-day strike last week at Europe's third-busiest airport.

GdF decided to resume the strikes after accusing Fraport of making an "absolutely unacceptable" offer following the first round - the same words Fraport has used to describe GdF's demands.

- AP