27 April 2016•Update: 28 April 2016
BERLIN
Airlines cancelled hundreds of flights on Wednesday due to a German public workers strike at six major airports: Frankfurt-Main, Munich, Dusseldorf, Cologne-Bonn, Dortmund, and Hannover.
In Frankfurt-Main, Germany’s largest airport, 392 flights were cancelled in the first hours of the strike; in Munich, around 740 were grounded.
German airline Lufthansa announced that it will be able to operate only 40 percent of its 1,500 flights scheduled for Wednesday.
Trade union Verdi decided to stage the one-day strike a day before its third round of negotiations with the government on pay rises.
In most of the airports, air traffic controllers, mechanics, and ground crew walked off the job, and at the Frankfurt-Main and Cologne-Bonn airports, firefighters also joined the industrial action.
The strike was set to end at 15:00 local time (13:00GMT) at the Frankfurt-Main and Hannover airports, and at 14:00 local time (12:00GMT) in Dusseldorf.
Verdi announced that the ground crew strike will continue throughout the day at the Munich airport and end at the Cologne-Bonn airport at 24:00 local time (22:00GMT).
Verdi, which represents 2.1 million public sector workers, is demanding a pay rise of 6 percent, while the government offered a 3 percent hike over two years in the second round of negotiations.
