'Warning strike' forces Lufthansa to cancel hundreds of flights

Feb. 17 (UPI) -- The Lufthansa Group announced on Friday that all of its flights in Frankfurt and Munich have been canceled because of a strike.

In a message on its website, Lufthansa said it expected up to 1,300 flights to be canceled as a result of the strike, which would also affect airports in Stuttgart, Hamburg, Dortmund, Hanover and Bremen.

According to the flight tracking website FlightAware, 573 Lufthansa flights and an additional 212 Lufthansa Cityline flights were canceled as of 7:30 a.m. EST on Friday. The website said that 76% of flights leaving Frankfurt International Airport were grounded along with another 71% of flights leaving the Munich International Airport.

The company said it was already offering passengers alternative flights when possible so they can keep their travel plans.

"We regret the enormous impact of this warning strike which is being carried out at the expense of our passengers," Michael Niggemann, member of the executive board and chief officer of human resources and infrastructure of the Lufthansa Group, said in a statement. "We are not a party to the collective bargaining and have no influence on it -- nevertheless, our guests and we are massively affected."

The United Services Union, or Ver.di, called for the day-long strike of airport workers as its negotiations with Lufthansa and its three unions groups stalled.

"The employees are jointly putting pressure on the respective employers because no results have been achieved in the previous negotiations," said Deputy Chair Christine Behle said in a translated statement on Wednesday.

Another so-called "warning strike" by Ver.di last July forced Lufthansa to cancel 678 flights at its Frankfurt hub. That strike affected some 42,000 passengers during the peak travel season.

The strike comes two days after a telecommunication cut during construction in Frankfurt grounded more than 100 flights and delayed many others at Frankfurt International Airport.

In that incident, the German communications company Deutsche Telekom said a concrete drill damaged fiberglass cable more than 16 feet underground during construction work, affecting several thousand Frankfurt area customers.