Lufthansa pilots go on a 3 days strike disrupting 3,800 flights

Lufthansa pilots have gone on strike and about 3,800 flights scheduled for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday have been cancelled. The cancellation will naturally disrupt travel plans of

 425,000 passengers who were to fly by Lufthansa from April 2-4, mostly on flights that were to come in or out of airports in Frankfurt and Munich.

There are 17 airports in the United States where the airline flies and 134 flights have been cancelled in the three days strike from those locations.

Vereinigung Cockpit, the union representing the pilots, gave advanced notice of the strike last week after it did not come to an agreement over compensation with the airline through negotiations.

The three-day strike would be one of the biggest walkouts in Lufthansa’s history and forces the airline to cancel all but about 500 of its flights, including those for both passengers and cargo.

Those flights not cancelled will be flown by Lufthansa’s other airlines, such as Swiss International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines, Eurowings, Lufthansa CityLine and Air Dolomiti, whose pilots are not participating in the strike.

The company estimates it will lose tens of millions of euros due to the cancellations. It is contacting affected customers via text message and email and allowing them to rebook or cancel flights at no cost. It is also exchanging tickets for domestic flights with train tickets. Neither Lufthansa nor Vereinigung Cockpit could be reached immediately for comment