Lufthansa and Eurowings pilots have launched a major strike in Germany — DW
Starting Monday night, April 13, pilots from Germany’s largest airlines, including Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Eurowings, launched another wave of protests.
DW reports on this.
The protest was organized by the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union, which is demanding that airline management improve pension plans and revise collective bargaining agreements.
The country’s key transportation hubs—Frankfurt am Main and Munich airports—have been hit hardest by the flight crew walkout.
Passengers are strongly advised to check the status of their flights in advance, as a significant number of departures have been canceled or postponed indefinitely.
“Eurowings’ proposal regarding corporate pension plans is unacceptable and so meager that it hardly deserves to be called a pension plan,” the VC union notes.
Pilot representatives emphasize that Lufthansa and its subsidiaries have yet to provide adequate proposals that would meet the employees’ demands.
Despite the scale of the action, the union made an exception for strategically important routes due to the tense situation in the Middle East.
Pilots flying to Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and a number of other countries in the region are exempt from participating in the protest to ensure stable service.
Union spokesperson Andreas Pinheiro called the current strike a “last resort” and an attempt to salvage negotiations that have effectively reached an impasse due to the employers’ fault.
This is already the fourth wave of mass protests by airline staff since the beginning of 2026, indicating a deep crisis in relations between management and employees.
Lufthansa pilots have called a strike
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