It has been revealed that the strikes affecting German carrier Lufthansa has cost more than €250m so far.
This is not good news for the German carrier, who are trying to get a grip of the ongoing situation.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Impact on Strike Action for Lufthansa…
As per the American Journal of Transportation, the strike action at Lufthansa has cost well over €250m so far.
Chief Financial Officer Remco Steenbergen has blamed unstable crew rostering and aircraft scheduling for disrupted operations.
Such disruption even went as far as cancelling their popular Frankfurt-San Francisco service for a week.
In an internal memo first released by Bloomberg, Steenbergen said the following on this:
“We really want to offer our customers more reliability again – and quickly, too”.
“So we simply can’t afford to have these industrial disputes waged at the expense of our customers, or see new wage deals concluded at the expense of our long-term competitiveness.”
It is also understood that the €250m cost is well above the original €100m forecasted by Lufthansa.
What Can Be Done?
There could be some criticism placed against Lufthansa with the words of Steenbergen.
Just two weeks ago, the Group generated a €2.7bn operating profit, with revenues soaring to €35.4bn.
Furthermore, the group said that this was the third best financial result in their history.
Including this, it is the first time that all passenger airlines in the group reported a profit too.
This, of course, could add fuel to the fire when it comes to pay, as it is a strong and healthy profit.
However, it is unclear how much extra the pay increases would cost Lufthansa, but many argue that they are in a position to hand this out.
Overall…
In conclusion, it is unclear what Lufthansa will do regarding the strike action.
It is clear that the costs are beginning to spiral out of control, with their initial estimates already blown out of the water by €150m.
Many would argue that with healthy profits, that the German airline is in a position to remunerate.
But for now, with the Summer season fast approaching, all eyes will be on the German airline to get this under control.
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