Air traffic on strike: These airports will remain closed on Friday

travel chaos
Flight strike: These major German airports are closed to passenger flights on Friday

A Lufthansa plane at Frankfurt Airport

© Arne Dedert / DPA

Thousands of travelers were stuck today due to a Lufthansa IT failure. The next problem will be added on Friday: due to the Verdi strike, several large airports will remain closed for passenger flights.

It was foreseeable that there would be problems with air travel on Friday: the Verdi union announced a strike by airport staff for the day. Many airlines are already preparing for this with emergency plans. However, in several airports, operations should not only take place more slowly, but not at all: the major airports in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich will remain completely closed for regular passenger flights on Friday.

This was confirmed by a Lufthansa spokeswoman star. Due to a foreseeable shortage of ground staff due to the strike, it is therefore not possible to operate the airports. Munich Airport also announced this. After star-Information that has not yet been officially confirmed, Stuttgart Airport should also completely stop passenger operations. Other airports such as Berlin and Cologne/Bonn should therefore not be affected and should continue to work in emergency mode.

Nothing works on Friday

The failure is only likely to exacerbate the situation at German airports. Due to a disruption on Wednesday morning, Lufthansa had to stop air traffic for almost the entire day. As a result, many passengers of the airline and sibling airlines such as Swiss and Eurowings were stranded at German airports. The fact that several of the largest German airports are completely canceled two days later should make it considerably more difficult for those affected to continue their journey.

A high-ranking Lufthansa employee revealed how difficult the situation could become in an interview star. “We are heading for a catastrophe on Friday,” he said. The emergency plans are no longer tenable because of the canceled flights on Wednesday. “We will need at least five to six days to get all stranded passengers to their destinations. The flights are simply full.” The full interview can be found here.

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