By Victoria Bryan and Peter Maushagen
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Airlines including Deutsche Lufthansa will have to cancel hundreds more flights to and from Frankfurt on Friday as a strike by airfield workers continues at the airport, Europe’s third-largest hub.
Trade union GdF on Thursday asked about 200 apron controllers who guide planes in and out of parking slots to walk off the job for 14 hours on Friday in addition to a seven-hour strike that started at 1400 GMT and resulted in 150 flight cancellations.
The move comes after the union failed to reach a wage agreement for the workers with airport operator Fraport.
Fraport operations director Peter Schmitz told reporters 151 flights had been cancelled on Thursday out of a total 1,250 scheduled, the majority of them from flagship carrier Lufthansa.
Long-haul flights were largely unaffected, as airlines chose to sacrifice flights mostly within Europe and especially Germany, where passengers could easily be booked on to trains.
With the strike set to continue at 0700 GMT on Friday, Lufthansa said it was cancelling a further 250 flights, almost all of them within Germany and Europe.
Frankfurt airport is Europe’s third-busiest
Read More at : http://townhall.com/news/world/2012/02/16/frankfurt_airport_set_for_more_disruption_on_strike
