A one-day strike by workers at 13 German airports, including key hubs in Frankfurt and Munich, brought air travel to a near standstill on Monday, with most flights cancelled nationwide.
The 24-hour industrial action, which began at midnight, involved public-sector employees at the airports as well as ground handling and security personnel.
At Frankfurt Airport, 1,054 out of 1,116 scheduled takeoffs and landings were cancelled, according to German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur, citing airport traffic management.
According to CNN, operations were also severely affected at other major airports. All regular departures and arrivals at Berlin Airport were cancelled, while Hamburg Airport announced that no departures would be possible.
Cologne/Bonn Airport reported no regular passenger service, and Munich Airport warned of a “greatly reduced flight schedule.”
READ ALSO: Germany: Nearly 300 flights cancelled at Hamburg Airport as staff commence strike
The strike, organised by the Verdi service workers union, extended to the Hamburg, Bremen, Hannover, Berlin, Duesseldorf, Dortmund, Cologne/Bonn, Leipzig/Halle, Stuttgart and Munich airports. At the smaller Weeze and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden airports, only security staff were called out.
The union initially announced the strike on Friday, but at Hamburg Airport, it added a short-notice walkout on Sunday to reinforce the impact of Monday’s action, stating that “it must ensure the measure was effective.”
The “warning strike,” a common move in German wage negotiations, is tied to two separate labour disputes — one concerning pay and working conditions for airport security workers, and the other involving broader wage demands by employees of federal and municipal governments.
The latter dispute had already triggered walkouts at Cologne/Bonn, Duesseldorf, Hamburg and Munich airports. Talks in that negotiation are scheduled to resume on Friday, while discussions over airport security workers’ pay are set to begin on March 26.
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