Strike announced Ryanair urges German pilots to work
Frankfurt/Berlin · Unions intend to hit the low-cost airline Ryanair hard with the first joint strike by pilots and cabin crew. “It will be very hard for Ryanair to move planes out of Germany on Wednesday.”
This is what the spokesperson for the German pilot’s union Vereinigung Cockpit, Markus Wahl, told the German Press Agency. They are communicating with the union Verdi, which is also prepared to strike.
On Tuesday morning, Ryanair had not yet cancelled any flights for the planned strike day but instead had urged pilots to go to work. Europe’s largest low cost airline has more than 40 planes, around a tenth of its fleet, stationed at eleven German airports.
VC and Verdi have announced an all day-strike at the German bases for this Wednesday. Around 400 pilots and 1000 cabin crew are employed there. VC estimates that around a third of the pilots are not directly employed by Ryanair and so cannot strike. This is the first Ryanair strike by Verdi.
During the first wave of strikes on 10 August, German pilots and their colleagues from the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden, stopped work. As a result, the airline cancelled around 400 connections, about a sixth of the European programme planned for that day. Around 55,000 passengers were affected.
About 250 flights were cancelled in Germany. Around a third of the planned flights in Germany could operate as the planes and their crews came from other European countries not on strike. The Austrian Laudamotion also had to cancel a number of flights as it relies on planes leased from Ryanair.
Original text: dpa. Translation: kc
