Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr declaredthat the airline is going to hire 20 thousand employees by the end of 2023. Mr. Spohr announced this at a press conference on the evening of Monday, September 5th. 12,000 people will be hired for new jobs, another 8,000 to replace employees who are leaving and retiring.
During the pandemic, Lufthansa, like many other airlines, has been laying off employees: in two years, its staff was reduced from just under 140 thousand people to 100 thousand. After the lifting of covid restrictions and the surge in air travel in the summer, Lufthansa and other airlines faced difficulties due to a shortage staff and were forced cancel flights. At the beginning of August, Lufthansa already reported about plans to hire 10 thousand employees in the next year and a half. With rising demand, Lufthansa’s financial performance also improved. The airline’s revenue tripled in the second quarter, it reported for the quarter with a net profit of €259 million against a loss a year earlier.
At the same time, Lufthansa has recently been regularly facing strikes – both ground personnel and pilots. If with the ground personnel of the airline already managed to agree, then the pilots’ strikes continue. The last one took place last Friday, September 2, because of this cancelled 800 flights. On Monday, the pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit reported about the intention to hold a strike demanding higher wages on Wednesday and Thursday this week. After that, Lufthansa suggested the union to hold new negotiations on improved requirements: it is now proposing to increase pilots’ wages by €500 from September and another €400 from April next year. Negotiations will be held today, September 6.