Frankfurt airport to be closed for departing passengers during strike

Germany's busiest airport Frankfurt will be closed to departing passengers on Thursday due to a strike by security staff, a spokesman for the operator said on Wednesday, as public transport is set to be crippled due to widespread industrial action.

Thursday's closure at Frankfurt comes as trade union verdi has called on ground staff at Germany's national carrier Lufthansa to strike from Wednesday evening in a current wage dispute for around 25,000 employees.

Train traffic in Germany is also set to come to a halt on Thursday as train drivers at national rail operator Deutsche Bahn have announced plans to strike for 35 hours.

Meanwhile, further strikes at Lufthansa might be looming, with cabin crew union members also voting in favour of strikes on Wednesday.

In a ballot of flight attendant union members, more than 96% voted in favour of going on strike in the ongoing wage dispute with Lufthansa, the Ufo union, which represents cabin crew, said, but a strike date is not to be set until later.

Ufo is demanding a 15% pay rise for around 18,000 Lufthansa cabin crew and just under 1,000 staff at subsidiary Cityline over a period of 18 months. The union is also asking for an inflation adjustment bonus of €3,000 ($3,200) and higher bonuses.

Wage negotiations for the Lufthansa parent company and the subsidiary Cityline have been held separately. In both cases, the union had rejected the respective offers as insufficient.

While strikes in that labour dispute may still be prevented, many travellers are set to be stranded amid the disruption expected on Thursday and Friday.

The operator of Frankfurt airport recommended that passengers contact their airlines and said they should not travel to the airport under any circumstances.

The impact of the strikes by ground and security staff on the flight schedule remained initially unclear. So far, planes are still expected to land and passengers on incoming flights should be able to change at Frankfurt, Germany's largest airport.

Originally, 1,170 departures and arrivals with around 160,000 passengers on board were planned for Thursday. Which connections are cancelled is a matter for the respective airline, an airport spokesman said.

A total of 650 of those flights had already been cancelled by Wednesday noon.

The strike by Lufthansa ground staff begins on Wednesday evening and is scheduled to continue until Saturday morning at 7:10 am (0610 GMT). Security staff at Frankfurt and Hamburg are set to join them on Thursday.

The workers are employed by private companies that check passengers, staff and luggage at the entrances to the security area on behalf of the Federal Police.

There have already been two waves of strikes in the wage dispute for around 25,000 ground staff, each of which paralysed passenger traffic for around a day.

Verdi has demanded 12.5% more pay and an inflation compensation bonus for one year. Lufthansa has so far offered 10% higher salaries for 28 months.

Passenger flights are expected to be mainly affected on Thursday and Friday, but so far Lufthansa has not amended its schedule to reflect the additional strikes at Frankfurt and Hamburg airports. Even before security staff there were called on to join the action, the airline was expecting massive flight cancellations, especially at its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich.

Munich Airport is to remain open on Thursday and Friday, but is expecting many flight cancellations, a Lufthansa spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

All 141 departures originally scheduled from Hamburg airport for Thursday were already cancelled by Tuesday evening. Some planes would depart without passengers, a spokesman said, to avoid further disruption to the flight schedule.

The airport staff action comes as train drivers at national rail operator Deutsche Bahn have also announced plans for renewed strikes.

The strike in passenger transport is to start on Thursday at 2 am (0100 GMT) and is to last for 35 hours, the head of Germany's train drivers' union GDL, Claus Weselsky, announced on Monday.

In the rail freight sector, the strike is set to begin on Wednesday at 6 pm.

Deutsche Bahn does not expect services to return to normal before Saturday, according to a spokesman.