People look at the destination boards at Frankfurt am Main Airport following the announcement of strike action (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)
Brits travelling to Germany are stranded after hundreds of Lufthansa flights have been cancelled due to strike action.
The airline said around 100,000 people’s travel plans will be ruined as strike action by the Verdi union impacts Germany’s two major airports – Frankfurt and Munich.
The action started at 3am this morning and lasts until tomorrow morning with Brits flying out of airports like Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast City and Newcastle impacted.
The airline said only around 10 to 20% of its scheduled flights will take off today.
Passengers have been urged not to turn up at the airports unless their flight is scheduled to take off.
A spokesperson for Lufthansa told Metro: ‘The German union Verdi has called on ground staff at Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Lufthansa Technik, Lufthansa Cargo and other companies to take part in a 27-hour warning strike today on Wednesday and Thursday morning.
‘Due to the warning strike, Lufthansa currently expects that around 10 to 20 percent of the flight program will be operated today, Wednesday.
‘In Frankfurt, selected long-haul flights, such as to New York and Rio de Janeiro, as well as certain short and medium-haul flights are operating.
An information board shows cancelled flights on the day of a strike by Lufthansa ground staff in Frankfurt (Picture: Reuters)
Striking Lufthansa ground crew employees hold a banner reading ‘Enough now!! With the pay scale difference between East and West!’ in reference to ongoing pay scale differences between eastern and western Germany (Picture: Getty Images)
A passenger sleeps at Munich Airport due to the strike action (Picture: EPA)
‘Lufthansa Group airlines, such as Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings and Swiss, as well as Lufthansa CityLine, are operating today quite regularly.
‘Passengers who are affected by flight cancellations have already been informed via email or the Lufthansa app. We regret the inconvenience for our guests.
‘We only ask passengers to come to the airport if their flight has not been cancelled. Due to the strike, the rebooking counters are unfortunately not staffed today.
‘Lufthansa has around 1,000 flights per day.’
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The airline added passengers can rebook their cancelled flights free of charge at lufthansa.com, through the customer app or via the service centres.
Verdi wants a 12.5% wage increase for 25,000 of its workers, or €500 more per month over a 12-month-period, plus a one-time payment of €3,000 because of inflation.
Germany has been plagued with strikes affecting air travel, railways and public transport over the last few weeks.
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