Further Strikes Unlikely as Lufthansa Wage Dispute Nears Settlement

Frankfurt — Further strikes can likely be avoided in the collective bargaining negotiations between German national carrier Lufthansa and its regular pilots, according to inside sources.

The online aviation news portal Aero.de reported that insiders confirmed on Wednesday that a compromise had been reached on Tuesday, some four weeks after the end of the truce period.

However, the collective bargaining commission and the executive board of the Cockpit pilots' union had not yet passed the corresponding resolutions. The commission informed the approximately 5,200 pilots in the evening that they should decide on whether to accept the negotiated outcome.

The collective bargaining commission will follow the result of this vote, it announced in a circular. The company initially declined to comment.

According to Aero.de, employees of the parent airline and Lufthansa Cargo are to receive a 7.5% pay increase from next year and also a one-off tax-free inflation adjustment of €3,000 ($3,325). Cockpit had demanded 8.5% more.

More importantly, agreement must be reached on work hours and on-call times in the collective agreement and the abolition of a second pay scale, which was introduced some years ago for new hires.

Pilots paralysed flight operations with a strike on September 2, 2022. More than 800 flights were cancelled with around 130,000 passengers affected. In September, both sides had agreed on a temporary interim solution with flat-rate salary increases.

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