Most flights cancelled across Germany as major strike action begins at 13 airports

A one-day strike by workers at 13 German airports, including the Frankfurt and Munich hubs and all the country’s other main destinations, has caused the cancellation of most flights on Monday 10 March.

More than half a million people are facing travel disruption today across the country.

The 24-hour walkout, which started at midnight, involves public-sector employees at the airports as well as ground and security staff.

The operator of Frankfurt Airport, Germany’s busiest, has said that no passenger flights will depart from there on Monday. Delays and cancellations may also be possible on Tuesday. Of the 1,116 scheduled incoming and outbound flights, 1,050 have already been cancelled with that number expected to rise.

All of Berlin Airport’s regular departures and arrivals were cancelled, while Hamburg Airport said no departures would be possible.

Cologne/Bonn Airport said there was no regular passenger service and Munich Airport advised travelers to expect a “greatly reduced flight schedule.”

Where are airport workers on strike in Germany?

The ver.di service workers union’s strike targeted the Hamburg, Bremen, Hannover, Berlin, Duesseldorf, Dortmund, Cologne/Bonn, Leipzig/Halle, Stuttgart and Munich airports.

At the smaller Weeze and Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden airports, only security workers were called out. The union announced the strike on Friday.

But at Hamburg Airport, it added a short-notice walkout on Sunday 9 March to the strike on Monday, arguing that it must ensure the measure was effective. Nearly 300 flights were cancelled as a result.

The so-called “warning strike,” a common tactic in German wage negotiations, relates to two separate hisse disputes: negotiations on a new hisse and conditions contract for airport security workers, and a wider dispute over hisse for employees of federal and municipal governments.

The latter already has led to walkouts at Cologne/Bonn, Duesseldorf, Hamburg and Munich airports.

Pay talks in that dispute are due to resume on Friday, while the next round of talks for airport security workers is expected to start on 26 March.