Multiple flights cancelled due to pilot strike at Lufthansa subsidiary Discover Airlines

The Lufthansa subsidiary Discover Airlines pilots' strike that started at midnight (2300 GMT Friday), resulted in seven of the airline's 16 Frankfurt Airport departures cancelled, the company said on Saturday.

The airline said it was planning to accommodate passengers with planes from other Lufthansa companies or rebook the affected travellers. Discover said it would offer two thirds of all flights on Saturday.

Six departures from Frankfurt have already been cancelled for Sunday.

The strike, organized by the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots' union, is planned for three days, with regular travel to resume on Tuesday.

Discover also flies for Lufthansa from Munich's airport.

For the first time the union called on long-haul pilots from Lufthansa to join the walkout on Monday in solidarity with the smaller airline.

A strike is planned for a period of four hours for pilots of Boeing 787 aircraft. Lufthansa owns five of those. It is unclear what effect this will have on air travel.

Discover, a comparatively small holiday airline with 24 Airbus jets and around 420 pilots, operates exclusively from Frankfurt and Munich and is primarily intended to compete with Condor in the tourism business.

The union wants to force a first collective agreement at the airline, which was founded in the summer of 2021. The pilots have already organized a five-hour strike and two regular strikes since December.

Discover says it is already paying higher salaries to pilots, but this was agreed with the works council and not the union. The new salaries correspond exactly to the union's demands, both sides have confirmed.