A little over a week ago Lufthansa had an important announcement to make: it terminated the so-called perspective agreement (PPV), which basically regulates the relationship between the powerful group of employees and the airline, effective June 30, 2022, and thus ensured the least for the crews said bad vibes. A week later Lufthansa has to cancel six long-haul flights over Christmas because suddenly there is an “extremely high sickness rate”.
Of course, it will never be possible to prove whether there is a connection and an informal go-slow strike. However, many in the group are asking themselves exactly this question – an indication of how bad the mood is now. And even among employee representatives, some suspect that the sick leave is no coincidence. Nor would it be the first time pilots have shown an airline how much damage they can do with a little less goodwill. For a while, this was a popular tool among dissatisfied pilots, especially with American airlines. And from their point of view, the Lufthansa crews have every reason to be angry.
However: In principle, deployment planning in Corona times has become extremely complicated. The health requirements for the crews, too, are constantly changing, the airlines often have to disrupt duty rosters and routes, and sometimes connect destinations so that the pilots and flight attendants can spend the night in one place and not another. The system is working to the limit. In addition, certain fleets such as the A380 at Lufthansa are still shut down, while smaller long-haul jets like the A330 and A340-300 fly at full load despite the pandemic. As a result, the airline was able to maintain a comparatively large number of routes, even if the number of passengers was well below the level of 2019 for a long time. While on other models many pilots were repeatedly sent on short-time work or, as with the A380, have not flown at all since the beginning of 2020, had A330– and A340– Crews to do enough again soon.
Exactly these A330 / A340– Fleet is now the problem. Even before the sick leave, it was extremely difficult to take all flights over the Christmas period. According to Lufthansa, the crew planning has built in large buffers, but these are apparently not enough because the failures far exceed the expected level. Affected include flights from Frankfurt to Boston, Washington, Houston, Tokyo-Haneda. The airline has tried to remove connections where it can easily rebook passengers on alternative flights.
From a Lufthansa perspective, a fleet of 325 aircraft is unrealistic
The perspective agreement had guaranteed the pilots of the core brand in 2017 that they could always fly with a fleet of at least 325 aircraft (including Germanwings). In return, the pilots enabled unit costs to be reduced by 15 percent and given the company more freedom in using subsidiaries on former Lufthansa routes. Lufthansa has now terminated the PPV on the grounds that 325 machines are unrealistic in the long term due to the consequences of the corona pandemic. It is now reportedly calling for a lower value and further cost reductions.
At the same time, an agreement is still pending on mandatory part-time rules for all pilots, through which a massive surplus of personnel can be overcome without layoffs. According to its own calculations, the company currently employs more than 1000 cockpit employees too many. A volunteer program, through which several hundred pilots will be leaving in the summer of 2022, could use a clause in the agreement to ensure that Lufthansa can dismantle the fleet much faster in accordance with the contract.