After the cabin crews on Friday, now the pilots: Lufthansa is facing another strike.
Pilots at the German Lufthansa Group are set to go on strike this Monday and Tuesday. The strike is scheduled to run from 12:01 a.m. on Monday until 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the Cockpit union (VC). VC members at Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Lufthansa Cargo AG, Lufthansa Cityline GmbH, and Eurowings GmbH have been called to strike.
Check Lufthansa and Eurowings website / app for more details.
Update:
Lufthansa is under strike by unions of cabin staff and pilots for also Wednesday to Friday (April 15-17, 2026).
"Lufthansa pilots also plan to go on strike again this coming Thursday and Friday, as announced by the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC). At the low-cost carrier Eurowings, another one-day strike is scheduled for Thursday. The pilots are primarily seeking higher company pensions."
Source: https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/lufthansa-streiks-104.html
Than you, Mark, for your updates.
I pulled off a last minute scramble to reroute my outbound flight, which was affected by the first (Monday/Tuesday) pilot strike.
For others whose flights may be at risk ...
I booked my itinerary through United, including Lufthansa segments in both directions.
The Lufthansa website said they would notify affected customers on Sunday morning, but I didn't wait for my flight to officially be canceled. I called United on Saturday afternoon and was able to get an earlier flight first thing Sunday morning that avoided Lufthansa.
Fortunately, United already had waivers in place on Saturday afternoon to allow free changes - before Lufthansa notifications were even sent out.
I considered myself lucky that the new itinerary, with 2 connections instead of one, and a night at San Francisco Airport, at least got me in on the same day as originally scheduled.
United refunded my seat upgrade.
It seems I'll need to continue to monitor this closely for my return, which also includes a Lufthansa segment.
Not easy to follow-up, especially for non-locals. So I try to keep the forum a little bit informed.
An earlier update post was not published after sending. Webmasters informed me that I can now contribute again on this one.
Good to read, CWsocial, that you got a good solution. I wish you a good journey!
Not sure if anybody has booked a flight with Lufthansa CityLine.
"In response to strikes and high fuel costs, Lufthansa is grounding its first aircrafts. According to the company, the first planes to be grounded starting Saturday will be the 27 older aircraft operated by its regional subsidiary Cityline. ... In response to the costs of strikes, Lufthansa is winding down operations at its regional airline Cityline sooner than planned and is also reducing capacity at its core Lufthansa brand. “As a first immediate step, starting the day after tomorrow [Saturday, Apr 18 2026], the 27 operational aircraft of Lufthansa Cityline will be permanently withdrawn from service to reduce further losses at the loss-making airline,” Lufthansa stated. Previously, Cityline was not scheduled to cease operations until 2028."
Source: https://www.n-tv.de/wirtschaft/Lufthansa-beendet-Betrieb-von-Tochter-Cityline-id30721353.html
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
My flight home on Tuesday is with Lufthansa, not CityLine. Thank you for the updates!
My inclination is to rebook now, before any rush. But - not wanting to pay exorbitant prices - I have to wait for United to put a waiver in place, if they do. Patience.
The latest news I've read is that Lufthansa pilots are not planning more strikes just now, while they begin discussions for mediation.
The first round of mediation from mid of this week failed. The pilots' union gets a lot of headwind from investors and customers of Lufthansa. Reading news on their website feels like a desperate argumentation for a non-holdable position. I think they tried to ask for too much.
I just want to say thank you again, Mark for your posts about the strike. I don't recall for sure, but your post may have been the first that alerted me to the new pilot strike, which fell during my flight itinerary. Because I had your morning (my time) update, I was able to get on the phone early with United to reroute my outbound flights. It required that I get to the airport that night, which I was able to do with early notice. Otherwise, my options would have been to fly out a day or two later, missing 1 or 2 days of an already short trip.
So thank you for the early heads up!
Thank you for the positive feedback and welcome. I am glad that it was helpful.
