The reason is the collective agreement negotiations for the flying staff, where no agreement has been reached for weeks. The AUA must decide on any flight cancellations by tomorrow at the latest, as the airline needs a lead time for flight cancellations. “We cannot cancel flights at the last second,” said a spokeswoman for APA.
The airline wants to discuss on Monday afternoon how flights will continue during the busy Easter period. A decision is likely to be made today or tomorrow at the latest. “We are under time pressure for the benefit of passengers,” said AUA spokeswoman Sophie Matkovits. If the 36-hour strike takes place between Maundy Thursday from midnight and Good Friday until midday, 430 flights with 52,000 passengers would be affected. According to the airline, the financial damage would be around 15 million euros.
“We want a deal above inflation”
The union is “ready to talk at any time,” vida spokeswoman Yvonne Heuber told the APA on Monday. “We want a deal above inflation.” The AUA’s offer of up to 18 percent salary increase for flight attendants and pilots and up to 28 percent for co-pilots does not refer to the salary tables, they are one-off payments. Converted, this only compensates for inflation, but nothing more, says Heuber.
The KV talks were broken off again on Sunday. There are currently no KV negotiations taking place, but both sides were generally willing to talk when asked by the APA. From a union perspective, an agreement is possible by Wednesday shortly before midnight in order to avert a strike on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. “We said that we would be happy to continue negotiating, but the union would have to move,” said the AUA spokeswoman.
