Lufthansa pilots start three-day strike over early retirement

Image Source: ewn.co.za

A three-day strike by pilots at Lufthansa over early retirement, which has grounded Germany’s largest airline, shows no sign of ending early after management said there would be no further talks during the strike period.

Lufthansa has cancelled 3,800 flights during the strike, which runs until the end of Friday, and says the stoppage will cost it tens of millions.

The pilots’ walkout is the largest ever to hit the airline and the third strike at Frankfurt airport, Europe’s third-largest by passengers, in six weeks after industrial action by security staff and public sector workers.

Both Lufthansa and the pilots say they are ready to talk. However, the pilots’ union wants to see a new offer from management first and Lufthansa said on Wednesday that no new negotiations would take place while the strike continued.

“We’ll first see out the strike and then we’ll think about talks,” Werner Knorr, Lufthansa Chief Pilot, told journalists.

Even if the strike is ended it is unlikely Lufthansa’s flight schedules will return to normal before Saturday.

“It’s a system with 1,800 flights a day, we can’t just stop and start it. We’re concentrating now on returning services to normal for Saturday,” a spokeswoman said.

The stoppage by some of Lufthansa’s most well-paid employees has prompted outrage from travel organizations, which say the three-day strike is over the top. Germany’s best-selling tabloid Bild asked: “Do the Lufthansa pilots have their head in the clouds?”

The pilots want Lufthansa to reinstate a scheme that enabled them to receive 60 percent of their pay when they left their jobs before the legal retirement age.

Pilots at the airline used to be forced to retire at 60, leaving them with a five-year gap before legal retirement provisions kicked in at 65.

However, the retirement age for pilots was raised to 65 in Europe in 2011, and so Lufthansa says the scheme is no longer needed.

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Lufthansa's new premium economy seat

Lufthansa, Germany's largest airline, has unveiled its new premium economy class, part of a €3 billion ($4.9billion) investment in seats to catch up with fast-growing rivals from the Middle East.

The airline said the new class would first be available on long-haul flights from November on its Boeing 747-8, flying to destinations such as Washington DC, Los Angeles or Hong Kong.

Lufthansa is following around 40 other airlines that already have a premium economy class such as British Airways, United or Qantas.

The premium economy concept has been around for more than a decade.

Lufthansa Passenger Airlines Chief Commercial Officer Jens Bischof said the airline had had sleepless nights about whether to introduce a premium economy class but was comfortable now the group had upgraded its business class, meaning there was enough of a difference between economy and business to justify the introduction of a premium economy.

He said he believed the product was of a high enough quality that the airline would be able to snatch customers from rivals.

A return flight in premium economy, which give customers more luggage allowance, more space and bigger entertainment screens among other benefits, will cost on average €600 ($979.5) more than a regular economy ticket, but far less the average €2,000 mark-up for a business class seat, Bischof said.

"The biggest question is whether businesses will now book the class for those travelling on business," airline consultant Gerald Wissel from Airbourne said.

Bischof said around 70 per cent of business travellers were travelling in economy these days.

"We believe the upsale potential for economy to premium economy is far bigger than the downsell from a full-class business with a flat seat," he told a packed crowd at the ITB travel fair in Berlin.

Bischof said the airline was investing €3 billion euros in improving its product for customers, not counting the 36 billion euros worth of new aircraft it has ordered.He put the investment in the premium economy at €170 million, compared with €1 billion for the business class refurbishment.

Davy analyst Stephen Furlong said it was important for Lufthansa to invest in its product, even as it cut costs.

"They want to be the first European five-star airline. Like a lot of German companies in other industries, they will never be the lowest on costs, so you'd better have a better product than anyone else," Furlong said, referring to Lufthansa's attempts to get a five-star rating from Skytrax, which reviews and ranks airlines.

Airlines with five-star ratings include Singapore and Cathay, among others.

Lufthansa said premium economy would make up around 10 percent of seat capacity on its long-haul flights, carrying around 1.5 million passengers a year in the class.

It will be fitted on all 106 of its long-haul planes within a year.

Bischof added the group had no plans at present to introduce it on short- or medium-haul, or on other airlines within the Lufthansa group, such as Austrian Airlines.