Hundreds of flights cancelled amid strikes at 11 German airports
Hundreds of flights have been cancelled in Germany on Thursday amid a one-day strike by aviation security workers at 11 airports across the country.
The strike forced the closure of security checkpoints at all 11 affected airports, meaning no travellers could enter the airport and board flights.
But the impact of the strike on flight operations, which began in the early hours of Thursday at most of the airports, varied widely.
The airports hit by the strike are Frankfurt, Hamburg, Bremen, Berlin, Leipzig, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Hanover, Stuttgart, Erfurt and Dresden.
At Germany's busiest airport hub in Frankfurt, for instance, about 310 flights had been cancelled as of Thursday morning out of a schedule of 1,120 flights.
Lufthansa, which is based in Frankfurt, announced plans to continue flying a nearly full schedule for arriving and connecting passengers, although no travellers could begin their journey in Frankfurt due to the security strike.
In Berlin, all departures and many arrivals were cancelled and the terminal on Thursday morning appeared deserted. In Dusseldorf, around a third of take-offs and landings were cancelled, and in nearby Cologne - where the strikes began late on Wednesday evening - virtually all air traffic had ceased.
Other airports, such as Lufthansa's secondary hub in Munich, are not impacted by the strike and were operating on largely normal flight schedules.
Airport officials urged travellers to check with their airlines or tour operators to learn the status of individual flights. Airport websites also often list information about the status of scheduled take-offs and landings.
Airport industry group ADV has estimated that the strike will delay or cancel 1,100 flights and affect 200,000 passengers.
Trade union Verdi is demanding raises of €2.80 ($3.02) per hour for about 25,000 workers at private aviation security firms. The companies have rejected that demand as too expensive, saying it would cost €250 million a year.
Collective bargaining talks are scheduled to resume on Tuesday.
