Berlin, Europe Brief News – Almost all passenger flights in seven major German airports have been stopped after hundreds of ground crew walked out on strike in a row over pay.
Some 2,340 flights have been canceled, with roughly 295,000 passengers affected, including Romania’s foreign minister trying to get to the Munich Security Conference event.
Germany’s busiest two hubs in Frankfurt and Munich stopped all regular passenger flights, with the strikes also hitting airports in Bremen, Dortmund, Hamburg, Hanover and Stuttgart.
Berlin Brandenburg Airport was the largest hub spared the disruption, though it suffered a full-day warning strike late last month.
“When we look at the airport terminals this morning, it reminds us more of the worst days of coronavirus than of a warning strike,” Ralph Beisel of the ADV airports’ association told Bavarian public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk on Friday.
The seven airports and airlines have questioned the extent of the industrial action and its appropriateness, while the Verdi trade union said it needed to send a “strong signal.”
Beisel said the terminals were empty, with advanced warning for the strikes meaning the vast majority of affected passengers at least knew not to come to the airports.
International flights were for the most part rescheduled, domestic travelers were mainly offered replacement rail tickets.
