Nearly 800 Lufthansa flights were cancelled during an all-day walkout by pilots and flight attendants, according to the airline, affecting about 100,000 passengers and keeping hundreds of aircraft on the ground.
The industrial action took place on February 12, 2026, a date retained here as historical context. Lufthansa expected operations to remain disrupted until the following day. It advised travellers to establish whether their flights were operating before leaving for an airport.
The company said it would seek to move affected customers to services run by other Lufthansa Group or partner airlines. The group includes Swiss, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines. Passengers could also convert eligible flight bookings into Deutsche Bahn train tickets without an additional charge, Lufthansa said.
Separate disputes behind joint disruption
About 4,800 pilots employed by Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo were seeking higher employer contributions toward retirement benefits. Members of the German pilots’ union VC had demonstrated a clear willingness to strike in a vote held the previous year.
VC President Andreas Pinheiro said the union would have preferred to avoid escalation and had remained willing to hold talks. He attributed the strike to the employer, presenting the walkout as a consequence of the unresolved negotiations.
Flight attendants were involved through a separate action called by the UFO union. That dispute concerned Lufthansa’s short-haul carrier CityLine, the planned end of its flight operations and what UFO described as the employer’s continued refusal to negotiate a collective social plan. The cabin-crew action covered about 20,000 staff and proceeded without a prior membership vote, according to DW.
Negotiations involving the unions and Lufthansa had occurred intermittently but had not produced an agreement. Lufthansa human resources head Michael Niggemann characterized the escalation as unnecessary, called the unions’ demands excessive and urged the parties to settle the conflicts through talks. He said the airline’s core brand lacked the financial capacity to absorb the additional costs being sought.
The disagreement unfolded while Lufthansa was trying to reduce expenses and improve profitability. Its core airline recorded a loss in 2024 and subsequently began a recovery program named “Turnaround,” intended to restore profitability. That financial program formed part of the company’s stated resistance to higher costs, while the unions’ actions reflected distinct concerns over retirement funding and the consequences of CityLine’s planned operational shutdown.
Although the pilots and flight attendants walked out on the same day, their stated demands were not identical. The pilots focused on retirement-benefit contributions, whereas UFO’s action addressed CityLine and a proposed social plan. Their simultaneous action nevertheless produced a combined network-wide impact, with cancellations reaching hundreds of services and passenger disruption estimated by Lufthansa at roughly 100,000 people.
