A 24-hour strike is expected on Friday in seven German airports will hit nearly 300,000 passengers as union workers press their calls for higher wages.
“The lounges are empty this morning,” a Hamburg airport spokesman said, adding that very few of the 32,000 passengers were at the airport.
Around 295,000 passengers were affected by the cancellation of some 2,340 flights at airports in Bremen, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich and Stuttgart, according to the airport association ADF.
“When we look at the airport lounges this morning, they remind us of the worst days of the coronavirus,” Ralf Bissell of the ADF union told the Bavarian Broadcasting Broadcasting Corporation.
The Verdi workers’ union announced its strike on Wednesday after it said collective bargaining efforts by ground staff, public sector officials and aviation safety officers had made little progress.
“If nothing is done about wages now, we’re all going to have another chaotic summer. It’s about sending a really strong message,” Verdi union vice-president Christine Behley told Inforadio on Friday.
The strike coincides with the 59th Munich Security Conference.
A Romanian embassy official said the Romanian foreign minister, who was due to arrive on one of the canceled flights, would fly instead in Austria, then made the over four-hour journey to Munich.
