April 2- More inconvenience is headed towards Middle East passengers as Lufthansa, Europe’s second largest airline, will be on a four-day strike starting from April 13. The airline operates 88 flights per week from the region. Late last month, Europe’s biggest airline, British Airways, went on strike causing major flights disruptions to and from the Middle East.
Lufthansa, the German national carrier, has called on Vereinigung Cockpit, the pilots’ union, to halt the planned strike action and has threatened that it will seek damages if the industrial action goes ahead. Stefan Lauer, the airline’s human-resources chief, told reporters on Tuesday that the strike action could cost the airline around 100m euro ($135m).
Lufthansa pilots are going on strike over pay and work conditions, and whether or not their contract terms require them to work for other divisions in the group, such as BMI in the UK or Austrian Airlines.
