A one-day protest by employees at 13 German airports, including Frankfurt and Munich, as well as other key destinations in the country, has led to the cancellation of most flights.
The strike, which started at midnight, involves public sector workers at airports, as well as ground staff and security personnel.
German news agency dpa reported, citing the airport's air traffic control, that 1,054 of 1,116 scheduled flights were cancelled at Frankfurt Airport during the day.
All scheduled flights and arrivals from Berlin Airport were cancelled, and Hamburg Airport announced that no flights were possible.
Cologne Bonn Airport reported no scheduled passenger services at all, while Munich Airport urged travellers to prepare for a “significant reduction in flight schedules”.
The strike by the service workers' union ver.di also affected the airports of Hamburg, Bremen, Hanover, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Cologne/Bonn, Leipzig/Halle, Stuttgart and Munich. At the smaller airports of Weeze and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, only security staff were called in.
The union had called for a strike on Friday. But at Hamburg airport it added a short protest on Sunday to Monday's strike, arguing that it needed to ensure the measure was effective.
The so-called “warning strike” – a common strategy in wage negotiations in Germany – is linked to two separate wage disputes: negotiations over a new employment contract and working conditions for airport security workers, and a broader dispute over wages for federal and local government employees.
The latter has already led to strikes at the airports of Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Munich.
Wage talks in that case are due to resume on Friday, with the next round of talks on airport security workers expected on March 26.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
