Lufthansa has revealed that it won't run any flights from its hubs in Frankfurt Airport and Munich Airport tomorrow. Few, if any, flights are expected to be able to depart these airports due to strike action from airport staff belonging to the Verdi union. More than 1,300 flights are affected by the announcement.

It is not a good week to be Lufthansa. Yesterday, the airline faced massive disruption after severed fiber optic cables grounded its IT systems. Now, the airline's operations will be totally paralyzed for the second time in three days.

No flights tomorrow

Tomorrow is not a good day to be a Lufthansa passenger. Due to strikes by airport staff in Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dortmund, Hannover, and Bremen, the German flag carrier isn't planning to operate any flights out of Frankfurt or Munich tomorrow.

Confirming what we already knew, Frankfurt Airport and Munich Airport will be essentially off-limits to passengers tomorrow because of the strikes. This has essentially forced Lufthansa's hand in canceling the flights.

Commenting on the cancelations, Michael Niggemann, Member of the Executive Board and Chief Officer of Human Resources & Infrastructure at Lufthansa Group, remarked,

"We regret the enormous impact of this warning strike which is being carried out at the expense of our passengers. We are not a party to the collective bargaining and have no influence on it – nevertheless, our guests and we are massively affected. More than 1,300 flight cancellations for Lufthansa Group airlines alone show once again how vulnerable and fragile the air transport system is to strike activity."

Even more disruption

Canceling a whole day's worth of flights is a last-resort option for any airline. Not only does it have financial implications, but does reputational damage. Many passengers tomorrow will have trusted Lufthansa to fly them to their destinations. While the cancelations are essentially out of the airline's control, they are the ones who have to face the passengers.

This will be made especially bitter given the disruption faced yesterday. Suppose passengers who could not travel yesterday could not find seats on flights today. In that case, the earliest alternatives will now be on Saturday, and they will also be facing those affected by the strikes to get these seats.

Rebooking with an alternate airline is also not an option in this case. If it were just Lufthansa's flights affected, passengers to London would potentially be able to travel with British Airways. However, given that the strikes are airport-wide, all carriers will be unable to use Frankfurt Airport tomorrow.

Lufthansa is hoping that its flight schedule will be largely back to normal on Saturday. The airline says that all affected passengers have been notified of the cancelations.

In a separate statement on the strikes, the Board of Airline Representatives in Germany, of which Lufthansa is a member, commented,

“We consider the announced warning strikes to be disproportionate and unreasonable... It is not acceptable that such disputes repeatedly paralyze large parts of an entire country’s important infrastructure, with massive repercussions for passengers and companies – especially in these economically uncertain times... We urgently appeal to the involved conflict parties to return to the negotiating table and get into constructive dialogue. There must be no further strike action in this conflict for the good of society.”

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