German airport strike cancels 2,340 flights, affects about ‎‎300,000 passengers‎

A twenty-four-hour strike at seven German airports today, Friday, is expected to affect nearly 300,000 passengers, as union workers insist on their demands for higher wages.

“The lounges are empty this morning,” said a spokesman for the airport in Hamburg, adding that very few of the 32,000 passengers were at the airport.

About 295,000 passengers were affected by the cancellation of approximately 2,340 flights at the airports of Bremen, Dortmund, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich and Stuttgart, according to the airport association ADF.

“When we look at the airport lounges this morning, it reminds us of the worst days of the Corona virus,” Ralf Bissell of the ADF union told Bavarian Broadcasting Broadcasting Corporation.

The Verdi union announced the strike on Wednesday after saying that collective bargaining efforts by ground staff, public sector officials and aviation security workers had made little progress.

“If nothing is done about wages now, we are all going to see another chaotic summer,” Christine Behley, vice president of the Verdi union, told Inforadio radio on Friday. It’s about sending a really strong message.”

The strike coincides with the fifty-ninth Munich Security Conference

A Romanian embassy official said the Romanian foreign minister, who was due to arrive on one of the canceled flights, would fly to Austria instead, then make the more than four-hour drive to Munich.