The Lufthansa pilots' strike also hits Hamburg

A number of flights will also be canceled at Hamburg Airport due to the all-day strike planned for Friday by Lufthansa pilots. All departures from Germany of the core company Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo are to be struck, as the union Cockpit (VC) union in Frankfurt announced.

In Hamburg, around 20 arrivals and 20 departures by Lufthansa aircraft from and from Frankfurt am Main and Munich will be affected. Affected passengers should contact Lufthansa directly for information about the flights and possible rebookings, said an airport spokeswoman in Hamburg on Thursday.

“In the course of today, Thursday, Lufthansa will adjust the flight schedule and publish the cancellations,” the airport company said in a statement. "All guests with contact details in the booking will be informed by Lufthansa via SMS or email."

Lufthansa criticized the call for a strike and called for a return to the negotiating table. The union demands salary increases of 5.5 percent in the current year for the approximately 5,000 captains and first officers and automatic inflation compensation from the coming year.

The pilots' union has also prepared to strike at the largest Lufthansa subsidiary, Eurowings, with its around 100 aircraft. According to the ballot counted on Wednesday, 97.9 percent voted in favor of a possible labor dispute.

However, a negotiation date for the disputed general tariff is still pending there in the coming week, so that no specific strike date was initially given for Eurowings. This would hit Hamburg hard. 63 destinations are in the Eurowings summer timetable from Hamburg.

It was not until the end of July that a warning strike by the Verdi union for Lufthansa ground staff almost completely paralyzed the airline's traffic for a day. In Hamburg, 20 arrivals and departures from and to Frankfurt am Main and Munich were canceled.