Mere weeks after Lufthansa operations were halted because of a strike, its subsidiary Eurowings is set to undergo the same. Starting on Thursday at midnight, Eurowings pilots will go on strike for 24 hours, demanding better pay and improved working conditions.

Eurowing pilot strike

Eurowings pilots are fed up with their pay and working conditions. As a result, the pilots' union Cockpit has announced that beginning on Thursday at 00:00, pilots will go on strike. After two long years of dealing with a pandemic that temporarily destroyed most of the aviation industry and inflation rising due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, pilots have had enough.

Pilots are asking for increased rest time between flights and a reduction in maximum work hours. The last time these conditions were revised was in 2015, according to the union. The union is aware that the strike will affect operations and passengers, but Eurowings executives have left them with no other choice.

Marcel Gröls of Cockpit said,

"We are open to discussion as to how we can create manageable working hours for Eurowings employees in the long-term. It's not enough to come to the negotiating table. You have to bring with you a desire to find a solution and not bring a list of demands and present it as an offer."

The decision to strike comes after ten rounds of failed negotiations.

According to Diio, a Cirium tool that pulls schedules from airlines worldwide, Eurowings is set to operate more than 500 flights on Thursday. Because of the strike, this number will surely decrease, but the exact number is unknown at the moment.

Summer Strikes

The Lufthansa Group has had a rough summer. On September 2, more than 800 flights were canceled because of a pilot strike. In August, Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr said he did not expect the group to return to normalcy in 2022.

"The return to full normalization in terms of personnel, in terms of reliability, punctuality, and our products... we believe we will reach this phase next year."

The strike on September 2 was not the first Lufthansa strike this summer. On July 27, more than 20,000 of Lufthansa's ground staff went on strike, leading to mass disruption of the airline's services. At 08:30 UTC, only 8 Lufthansa flights were airborne worldwide. Almost 1,000 flights were canceled between Munich and Frankfurt, affecting more than 130,000 passengers.

Matthias Baier, a spokesperson for the union, said,

"[Lufthansa] took advantage of yesterday's negotiation date, but did not use it to move towards the union's demands with an improved offer... In order to avert labor disputes, Lufthansa must present a significantly improved offer... In addition to compensating for the loss in real wages, what we now need above all is a future-proof solution for the remuneration structure in all occupational groups."

A few days after the September strike, Lufthansa and its pilots were able to reach an agreement, avoiding a 48-hour strike. The union stated that it had reached a "partial solution" with the airline, which included a comprehensive package of monetary and structural issues.