Lufthansa, the German airline, is facing a lot of challenges with its pilots threatening to go on strike yet again, even while the Airline has revealed its plans to hire about 20,000 people by the end of 2023.
Already last week the pilots called a day’s strike forcing the Airline to cancel almost all its flights that day, impacting over 1.3 lakh passengers.
Now, Lufthansa is negotiating with the pilots to strike a wage deal. It looks like an agreement of sorts has been arrived at between the management and the pilots’ union, Cockpit, just hours before the pilots were due to go on strike for a second time.
Although the details of the agreement are yet to be made public, it is reported that Cockpit had been demanding a 5.5 per cent increment this year. The union had also been seeking compensation to deal with inflation, and alterations in the salary bands. Pilots wish for a revised pay structure and holidays too.
If all the demands of Cockpit are met, the Airline’s cost of human resources itself is expected to go up by about 40 per cent, that is, about $900 million.
While Lufthansa had cut jobs during the pandemic and is gearing up to fill those vacancies and also add new posts, it is doubtful whether the Airline will be restored to pre-COVID levels in terms of capacity any time soon. Things will not be as easy with recession expected to take a toll on Germany.
