About 140,000 passengers of German flag carrier Lufthansa were cancelled on Wednesday due to a pilot strike. However, about 500 planes of the air carrier are still operating and the strike does not affect the trips of its four subsidiaries. These are Germanwings, Swiss, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines.
The affected passengers were not only those leaving Germany but also bound for Deutschland. Among the stranded passengers were those stuck at Mile High City in Colorado after they were informed of the flight cancellation as they boarded the jet.
The Lufthansa plane was instead parked at the airport. Flight LH447 was scheduled to leave Denver for Frankfurt at 5:25 p.m. on Tuesday, while Flight 446 was supposed to arrive in Denver on the same day.
The job walk-off, initiated by the pilots' union, Vereinigung Cockpit, started on Tuesday on its long-haul trips, reports Associated Press. It cancelled 90 flights, which extended to medium- and short-haul trips on Wednesday.
The pilots said they will take part in regular short-term strikes until the union's dispute with management over the air carrier's restructuring to address more competition from Gulf airlines which resulted in cost-cutting and changes to retirement benefits. The 5,400 aviators are pushing for transition payments for pilots who want to avail of early retirement.
It was the pilots' 13th strike in the last 18 months. Lufthansa sought a temporary injunction from a Frankfurt court on Tuesday to stop the industrial action, but the company failed. Despite the strike, Lufthansa said it would not take on any new pilots under its current collective labor agreements, reports Reuters.