The German airline cannot reduce the personnel costs for pilots as desired. That is why Lufthansa is moving forward with the separation of short-haul and long-haul operations.
The chances of an agreement were already slim at the end of last week. Earn 25 percent less, that wasn’t really an option for Lufthansa’s pilots. Negotiations between the union Cockpit and the airline’s management failed. Des makes this to the implementation of the plan for a new offshoot for European traffic.
The Cockpit Association declared on Tuesday (March 1) that it did not understand the “Lufthansa announcement that it wanted to found a new continental platform”. Boss Stefan Herth says: “The strategy of always establishing new platforms and closing them again has not brought the desired success for Lufthansa in the past and is short-sighted and uncreative.”
«Shuttle services for Frankfurt and Munich»
Lufthansa itself speaks in an internal circular from which the portal Aero quoted from a «subsidiary with its own German AOC». The abbreviation stands for Air Operator Certificate. The new airline is to provide “similar to Lufthansa Cityline domestic German and European feeder traffic for the hubs in Frankfurt and Munich”.
Planned for the new offshoot are, among other things Germanwings pilots who, according to the letter, can expect similar conditions as before. Lufthansa would thus reduce costs in the cockpit compared to the current core brand. The Cockpit Association writes that it is ready to help shape the future and attaches great importance to secure prospects and fair working and remuneration conditions.
“A split into long and short haul”
The cabin representative Ufo also speaks up. One sees “a massive threat to cabin jobs from Lufthansa’s announcement that it wants to found another new airline platform for continental traffic in addition to the classic line,” writes the union of flight attendants. “A division of Lufthansa Passenger Airlines into long- and short-haul routes will again lead to excess staff and ultimately to the destruction of tariff jobs,” says UFO boss Daniel Kassa Mbuambi.