The city of Teruel is located in the Spanish province of Aragon at around 900 meters above sea level. The climate is very dry and therefore the airport has been a popular parking spot for jets that are not needed, especially since the corona pandemic. To date, Lufthansa has parked 30 aircraft there, including all 14 Airbus A380s, and there is space for a total of 270 aircraft. It rarely rains, hail is even rarer. But after a massive hailstorm hit in July, there are now masses of jets with dented landing flaps, all of which will have to be repaired at great expense over the next few weeks.
Teruel is somehow another installment in the series of unlikely stories from the aviation world that airlines and their customers are experiencing this summer. In the past two months in particular, the dramatic organizational chaos in air transport has been the dominant issue for holidaymakers tired of the pandemic: long queues at security checks, delays, tens of thousands of lost suitcases and canceled flights. glitches everywhere. As the summer season draws to a close, it seems the worst part of the chaos is behind us. But Lufthansa is threatened with the next strike in the wage conflict with the pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC).
Talks with the VC have been going on for many weeks. After there had been no significant progress from the perspective of the pilots, the union got the green light from its members for possible strikes by ballot – practically everyone voted in favor. But since then, little has happened in the negotiations.
Formally, it is about demands for a new collective wage agreement: 5.5 percent more salary this year and automatic inflation compensation from 2023. The pilots also want a standardized salary scale again, in which the first officers are better off at the beginning of their career. In the background, however, other issues play an important role, because of which the union is not formally allowed to go on strike: Lufthansa had terminated the so-called Perspective Agreement (PPV), which guarantees a minimum fleet size, a step that is now considered a serious mistake even by the board. The pilots are also concerned about the establishment of another subsidiary (known internally as CityLine 2), which is to fly feeder services for the Frankfurt and Munich hubs. The various collective bargaining conflicts of recent years and the pandemic have left their mark – neither side really trusts the other.
A short strike would show how strong the bargaining position of the union is
In the last few days there have been increasing signs that the pilots will go on strike, at least for a short time. The VC wrote to its members at Lufthansa to ensure that they could be easily reached on the go – so that they would be notified of a call for a strike. The letter is of course also known to Lufthansa and can therefore be interpreted as a last warning, so to speak. Management is now more willing to compromise than in the past. It goes without saying that salaries have to rise because of inflation despite the difficult economic situation. Allegedly, however, new guarantees for a minimum size of the core fleet stationed in Frankfurt and Munich, where the best salaries are paid, are also conceivable. And CityLine 2, a red rag for the pilots, could also play a role as a bargaining chip in a compromise, because the VC can act from a position of strength thanks to the lack of pilots. A short strike would make this clear again.
After all, the situation in flight operations has stabilized again after Lufthansa took around 12 percent of the originally planned capacity out of the program for the summer. More than 99 percent of all flights take place, there are hardly any short-term cancellations. However, the number of delays is still well above normal because there are still problems in many areas: sometimes the luggage is not unloaded in time, sometimes the passenger bus is too late. A lack of spare parts is still a problem, especially for seats and in-flight entertainment on some of the long-haul Airbus A350 jets operating in Munich. This always causes trouble with passengers, which the flight attendants have to pay for. Leaving the machines at home is not an option, as they are all needed for the long-distance program.
And so back to Teruel: The repairs to hail dents are said to take several weeks per aircraft. The only good news is that most of the jets parked there were not intended for short-term missions anyway.