Frankfurt airport strike resumes

PanARMENIAN.Net - Germany's biggest airline Lufthansa AG canceled 140 flights on Monday, February 27 as ground workers held another strike at its main hub, Frankfurt airport.

Lufthansa said the canceled flights were all European and domestic round trips and that international long-haul flights would not be affected by the three-day strike of GdF union employees.

Some 200 workers who oversee tarmac operations are demanding double-digit wage increases from airport operator Fraport. Fraport has sharply criticized GdF demands while the union says it just wants the Frankfurt workers' salaries brought in line with what other airports pay.

In addition to the Lufthansa flights, Fraport spokesman Juergen Harrer said about 60 other flights had been canceled on Monday — though he noted that most of the 1,300 daily flights were still running.

"The operations here in Frankfurt are running in an orderly fashion," he said.

Union spokesman Markus Siebert said the strike was not intended to shut the airport down, just to cause enough inconvenience to bring attention to the workers' demands.

"What we don't want is to create chaos," he said. "It is all about creating disruptions and there are a huge number of those."

The strike started 9 p.m. Sunday (2000 GMT; 3 p.m. EST) and is to last until 5 a.m. Thursday (0400 GMT; 11 p.m. EST Wednesday). It follows a three-day strike last week at Europe's third-busiest airport.

GdF decided to resume the strikes after accusing Fraport of making an "absolutely unacceptable" offer following the first round - the same words Fraport has used to describe GdF's demands.