Lufthansa faces further disruption by strike action tomorrow just 48 hours after a systems failure caused havoc across the airline’s network.
More than 200 flights were cancelled at the German carrier’s Frankfurt hub on Wednesday after construction work in the area damaged telecommunications cables.
The airline blamed an “external IT failure” for having a “major impact” on its systems.
While the systems were swiftly restored, thousands of passengers found their flights cancelled or delayed across the world.
The situation will be compounded on Friday with Lufthansa confirming that a “large number” of flights will be affected by a walkout by staff across multiple German airports in a pay dispute.
Airports in Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Hanover and Bremen are being targeted by the Ver.di civil servants’ union following strikes in January at airports in Berlin and Dusseldorf.
Lufthansa said: “For Friday, 17 February, the trade union Ver.di has called for a one-day strike at various airports in Germany.
“As the airports of Frankfurt and Munich are also affected, a large number of Lufthansa and Lufthansa Group flights are expected to be affected.”
Munich airport confirmed that more than 700 flights would be affected.
Frankfurt airport warned that operations will be “heavily disrupted” throughout the day with passengers “strongly advised” not to travel to the airport.
Jost Lammers, CEO of Munich Airport and President of the
German Air Transport Association president Jost Lammers, chief executive of Munich airport, accused the union of “completely overstepping the mark’” by carrying out its wage dispute “on the backs of passengers”.
He added: “The wage dispute must be resolved at the negotiating table and not in the terminals at the expense of passengers.”