The cabin crew strike of Lufthansa employees officially ended at midnight on Friday. If a solution is not found in the coming days, expect more strikes in the near future, trade union UFO has vowed.
Image: Reuters/R. Orlowski
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The two-day strike of Lufthansa cabin crew ended at midnight on Friday, however carry-on effects will likely ground flights on Saturday too.
About 600 flights were cancelled on Friday as a 48-hour Lufthansa cabin crew strike entered its second day.
The 600 cancelled flights were out of a total of 1362, and mainly departed from the Munich and Frankfurt hubs. Approximately 180,000 of Germany's flagship airline's passengers were affected.
The UFO union, which represents about 21,000 Lufthansa crew, called the strike in a dispute over pay and the union's legal status.
On Thursday, 700 flights from the main group's schedule of 1,100 were axed.
The strike continued after the German airline's chief executive, Carsten Spohr, and UFO agreed to a new round of arbitration at the weekend to set the agenda for a new round of talks in the dispute over pay and conditions.
Further action threatened
UFO spokesman Nicoley Baublies said the union was open to discussions but not to ending the two-day strike.
"If the talks don't work out, we will have to announce on Monday that there will be more strikes," Baublies told reporters at Munich airport.
Nicoley Baublies, from UFO, speaks at a rally in front of the terminal at Munich Airport.Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Balk
The strike action is aimed at obtaining higher expenses and allowances for approximately 21,000 flight crew, as well as improved career possibilities among seasonal workers.
The union, though, will not extend the strike to other airlines in the Lufthansa group such as Eurowings, Swiss, Austrian or Brussels Airlines.
Corporate silver lining
In some relief for the company, Lufthansa's share price took off on Thursday largely thanks to a cost-cutting program already underway at its budget airline Eurowings.
Carsten Spohr said the group was "taking tangible corrective action to improve earnings."
Airline logos: Colorful, stark and striking
The large, often stylized logos on airplane tails allow you to immediately recognize the airline when you spot a plane. Many use birds in their designs, but all companies want to let you know where they are based.
Image: S. Barbour/Getty Images
Qantas
The plane tails of Australia's national airline Qantas are embellished with a stylized kangaroo, hence the nickname "the Flying Kangaroo!" Even from a far distance, it's easy to tell which continent the plane comes from. After all, kangaroos only exist in Australia. This animal has become a sort of national logo, appearing not only on planes but also on Australia's coat of arms and currency.
Image: S. Barbour/Getty Images
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
In contrast to its Australian counterpart, the logo of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is more factual. The abstract symbol of a crown in combination with the three letters KLM leaves no doubt as to which country this plane comes from. And that's what logos are all about.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/R. de Waal
Gambia Bird
The tiny West African state is a paradise for birds and their friends. More than 500 different kinds of birds live in the Gambia. Tourists don't even need to take birdwatching trips because many birds can be spotted in hotel gardens — they're just everywhere! Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Gambian national airline went for a bird as its logo when it was founded in 2012. Service ceased in 2014.
Image: flickr/Transport Pixels
Alaska Airlines
The Seattle-based airline has proved its creativity on several occasions during its 90-year-long history. The company was among the first airlines to sell tickets online and to offer online and automatic check-ins. Like its name, the logo of the airline refers to Alaska and its indigenous inhabitants, the Inuit.
Image: Reuters
Iran Air
A trade embargo and political tensions between 1980 and 2016 made it hard for Iran's state airline with headquarters at Tehran's Mehrabad airport to modernize its planes. But maybe the "homa," the mythological bird used in the logo, came to the rescue of the airline. According to Persian mythology, "homa" is believed to bring luck and joy while living its life entirely in the sky.
Image: Konstantin von Wedelstaedt
Air Tanzania
Over the years Tanzania's national airline has also had to face numerous challenges. Sometimes its fleet was in the air, sometimes not, and the airline's owners also frequently changed. It's certainly not the fault of the giraffe logo. The world's tallest animal looks so friendly and inviting on the plane;what passenger could say no to stepping onboard for a trip to Mount Kilimanjaro?
Image: flickr/stevesaviation
Takeoff into the future
A crane has served as the logo of Germany's largest airline since 1918. Some types of cranes cover enormous distances when they migrate, but others are considered pests due to their enormous appetites. Lufhansa is now flying into the future with a new logo design. The symbol will be the same, but the colors will change. Goodbye yellow and gray, hello simple white and blue!
