Lufthansa pilots began a 48-hour strike on Monday, grounding hundreds of flights at the carrier’s Frankfurt and Munich hubs in the fourth industrial action to hit the airline group this year.
Members of the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) trade union at Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo and Eurowings walked out over unresolved pay disputes, including demands around the company pension scheme and remuneration at regional subsidiary CityLine. Eurowings pilots are striking for one day only, on Monday.
Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s busiest, showed the majority of Lufthansa’s European departures as cancelled on Monday morning, with several domestic routes replaced by Deutsche Bahn rail services. Munich Airport issued warnings of severe disruption to Lufthansa and Eurowings passengers.
The strike comes days after Lufthansa reached a separate deal with rival union Verdi covering pilots and ground staff, while negotiations with both VC and the UFO cabin crew union, whose members struck last week, have stalled.
Lufthansa called VC’s central demand “for the doubling of an already above-average and excellent company pension plan” unfulfillable. VC President Andreas Pinheiro said the airline had shown “no recognisable willingness for a solution” despite the union deliberately holding off from action over the Easter bank holidays.
Middle East flights exempted from action
VC confirmed that flights from Germany to destinations across the Middle East would be excluded from the strike, citing ongoing travel disruption caused by the conflict in Iran and the wider region. Exempt routes include services to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Azerbaijan and Yemen.
Lufthansa said it was working to reroute passengers via other group and partner airlines where possible.
The dispute adds to a turbulent 2026 for the carrier, which is contending with simultaneous negotiations across multiple unions alongside the operational impact of Middle Eastern airspace restrictions.