As a 24-hour walkout grounded 900 Lufthansa flights on Friday, management and unions of Europe's biggest airline hinted at fresh talks to end their bitter wage dispute. Negotiations could be held as early as Friday, a spokesman for the UFO labour union told AFP. And a Lufthansa spokesman said: "We can confirm that there is contact with UFO," the Independent Flight Attendants' Organisation.
Neither side was willing to divulge further details. "We've received clear signals that Lufthansa is going to move," the head of UFO, Nicoley Baublies, had told AFP earlier, adding that it was unclear whether a mediator would be needed at this point. Baublies also said there would only be further walkouts if "the two sides fail to move closer".
And following the 24-hour stoppage on Friday - the third separate day of industrial action in a week - no further strikes were planned in the next few days, he told ZDF public television. The latest strike began at midnight (2200 GMT) and so far "more than 100,000 passengers are affected," said a Lufthansa spokesman, adding that around half of the airline's 1,800 daily flights had been cancelled.
Frankfurt airport, Lufthansa's main hub and Europe's third-busiest airport, was "most affected". But chaos had been averted because the airline had informed passengers beforehand about cancellations via text messages, and it had also posted information on its website, a spokesman said.
"Lufthansa seems to have been better prepared this time round," said UFO chief Baublies. The union, which described strike participation as "very high", claims it is the biggest-ever strike in Lufthansa's history, but the airline itself refused to comment on the scope of the work stoppage. The Lufthansa spokesman said "all German regions and all types of flights are affected," including long-haul flights which in the past strikes were the least disturbed by the strikes.
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