Tens of thousands of travelers faced a grueling Friday as a widespread Lufthansa strike: Hundreds of flights cancelled across Germany and passengers stranded turned major aviation hubs into bottlenecks of frustration. The industrial action, spearheaded by the UFO union, saw cabin crew from both Lufthansa’s mainline operations and its regional subsidiary, Lufthansa CityLine, walk off the job from midnight until 10 p.m. Local time.
The disruption was felt most acutely at Frankfurt Airport, where the operator Fraport reported approximately 580 flight cancellations by Friday morning. This surge in cancellations impacted roughly 72,000 passengers, though officials noted these figures included all carriers at the hub and were expected to fluctuate as the day progressed.
While Frankfurt bore the brunt of the numbers, the strike severely crippled operations in Munich, another critical node for the carrier. Simultaneously, CityLine cabin crew staged walkouts across nine different airports nationwide, effectively severing the “feeder” network that carries passengers from smaller regional cities to Lufthansa’s long-haul gateways.
