Flights to the Middle East are exempted but Lufthansa passengers should be alert as pilots called for a major strike again.

• The Vereinigung Cockpit pilots' union has called on more than 5,000 pilots to walk off the job on Thursday and Friday.
• Hundreds of cancellations are expected – however, flights from the Middle East are explicitly excluded.
• At the three affected Lufthansa companies, employees voted in favor of industrial action via a ballot.
• The strike is scheduled to last from 00:01 on Thursday until 23:59 on Friday, as announced today by the VC union.
• The background to the strike is a dispute over company pension plans at Lufthansa, and at its subsidiary Cityline, a dispute over a new pay scale.
• A similar ballot at Eurowings expires next Monday (March 16). Therefore, Eurowings employees will not participate in this week's strike.

Lufthansa passengers should prepare for the next major pilots' strike. The pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) has called on more than 5,000 employees to strike next Thursday and Friday.

In addition to flights departing from Germany by Lufthansa's core airline, the strike will also affect the cargo subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo and, for the first time, the regional carrier Lufthansa CityLine.

The union justifies the industrial action with the failure of collective bargaining negotiations regarding pay issues at Lufthansa Cityline and the company pension scheme for pilots at Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo.

Until 2017, pilots received a traditional company pension with guaranteed payouts. This was replaced by a capital market-financed model which, according to the union, does not reach the previous level of benefits.

This is the second wave of strikes in the ongoing wage dispute at Lufthansa's core company. On February 12, the pilots went on strike for a day. More than 800 flights with around 100,000 passengers were canceled.

According to the union, the industrial action stems from unsuccessful negotiations regarding company pensions at Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo. VC President Andreas Pinheiro stated that no offer has yet been received.

"It's no use if the other side only signals a willingness to talk but refuses to discuss substantial improvements to the company pension scheme."

VC President Andreas Pinheiro explained that the union would have preferred to avoid an escalation, but no offer had been received. "It's no help if the other side only signals a willingness to talk but doesn't want to discuss substantial improvements to company pension schemes," said Pinheiro.

“We would have much preferred to avoid further escalation,” says Andreas Pinheiro. “But there is still no offer on the table. It doesn’t help if the other side only signals a willingness to talk but doesn’t want to discuss substantial improvements to the company pension scheme.”

Arne Karstens, spokesperson for the Group's collective bargaining commission, emphasized that they had "negotiated long enough without an offer." 

“We have negotiated long enough without an offer,” says Arne Karstens,  

“Seven rounds of negotiations, lengthy periods of consideration, and even a mediated offer – the employer let all of that pass by. We will only continue talks when a negotiable offer is on the table.”

Since August 2025, the collective bargaining commission has been negotiating a new wage agreement. According to the union, several rounds of negotiations have failed to produce a negotiable offer from the employer. Lufthansa Cityline submitted an offer to VC on February 25th without demanding matching funds, but this offer is considered insufficient.

Cityline will no longer be flying for much longer

• Cityline operates regional feeder flights for the core Lufthansa airline. It operates 30 jets and employs around 500 pilots. According to the group's management, the airline's flight operations are scheduled to cease next year. Its routes will then be transferred to the new, almost identically named subsidiary, Lufthansa City Airlines.
• According to VC, the impending closure has nothing to do with the ongoing wage negotiations. The union has demanded annual pay increases of 3.3 percent for the years 2024, 2025, and 2026. VC rejected an initial offer because it included a no-strike clause until the end of 2027.

Following the strike at its core airline, Lufthansa proposed cost-neutral reforms to its company pension scheme, with the aim of then discussing the fundamental organization of flight operations with the help of an external mediator.

The career prospects of individual pilots also depend on this. CEO Carsten Spohr has stated that this is of far greater interest to employees than the already adequate company pension scheme.

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