Mayhem at New Delhi airport as Lufthansa cancels two flights due to flash strike by pilots

At least 400 air passengers, mostly students, were stranded at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on Friday after German carrier Lufthansa cancelled two flights owing to a flash strike called by its pilots.

The students were mostly headed to Canada and the cancellation of flights to Frankfurt and Munich led to utter chaos. As per reports, the flash strike affected 800 flights and 1,30,000 passengers worldwide.

In New Delhi, the distraught passengers shouted ‘we want justice’ outside the check-in counters of Lufthansa, with videos going viral on social media. The passengers claimed that the airline neither gave them information about the cancellation nor arranged for alternate flights.

Later, there were allegations that the police resorted to use of force to control the agitating mob, but the cops refuted the charges.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Tanu Sharma said, “We wanted to open a channel of communication between the airline and the passengers and ensure other passengers were not affected. There were 400 passengers and about 150 relatives who protested outside and inside the airport.”

Meanwhile, Lufthansa warned that there might be further delays during the weekend. A spokesperson from the airline said, “We had to cancel 800 flights at hubs in Frankfurt and Munich and an estimated 130,000 passengers will be affected, in view of the upcoming weekend and the end of the holidays in some parts of Europe. Lufthansa is working with joint forces to return its flight operations to a normal status as quickly as possible. Nevertheless, the effects of the strike may still lead to individual flight cancellations or delays this Saturday and Sunday.”

Rajesh Rateria, the owner of Cirrus Travels in Mumbai, said, “Flights have not come back to the pre-pandemic level, but the demand has increased manifold. Most airlines are struggling, and this is the peak season for students. We can expect such bottlenecks for the next few months.”

The Lufthansa pilots’ union, Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), called for the strike on Thursday night after collective bargaining negotiations with the company failed. VC is demanding a 5.5 per cent pay raise for its more than 5,000 pilots, alongside automatic inflation adjustments for 2023.

Published on: Friday, September 02, 2022, 09:22 AM IST