Flights canceled across Germany amid labor union strikes

Flights to and from airports across Germany were canceled on Friday amid a union worker strike.

The strike is impacting seven airports, including three of the country’s top airports—Frankfurt, Munich, and Hamburg. Additional airports that are part of the strike include Stuttgart, Bremen, Hanover and Dortmund.

In total, some 300,000 passengers have already been impacted and airlines have canceled about 2,300 flights, the Associated Press reported.

The strikes were triggered by the Ver.di union and Civil Service Association, which are seeking a 10.5 percent pay hike. Friday’s strikes may just be the beginning of such actions. A representative for the Verdi labor union told public broadcaster RBB-Inforadio that if a deal is not reached on the pay issue there could be a “summer of chaos” across Germany’s airports.

Lufthansa Airlines, which is the biggest carrier in Frankfurt and Munich, has said it will have to reduce its summer flight schedules because of staff shortages, BBC reported. As a result of Friday morning’s strike, it was forced to cancel 1,300 flights.

The strike comes just as the Munich Security Conference was slated to begin, which is bringing more than 40 heads of state and 60 ministers to the country, Reuters reported. The logistical challenges brought about by the strike forced Romania’s foreign minister, whose flight was canceled, to fly to Austria and then make a four-hour drive to the Munich conference.

This has been a challenging week for air passengers in Germany. Earlier this week, as TravelPulse reported, thousands of airline passengers were stranded at German airports after the country’s flag carrier Lufthansa experienced a group-wide IT system failure.