“Cityline 2” enrages the workforce: Lufthansa pilots are not just about the money

“Cityline 2” enrages the workforce
Lufthansa pilots are not just about the money

The Lufthansa pilots want more money, the airline finds their demands too high – this is how the conflict that has now led to the strike is presented. But in the background, the anger of the pilots about the company’s strategy plays a role, which is hidden behind the keyword “Cityline 2”.

With a day-long strike, the Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union – VC for short – paralyzes large parts of Lufthansa’s air traffic. The strike has been going on since early morning, 800 flights at the Frankfurt and Munich hubs had to be cancelled. According to the airline, 130,000 passengers are affected, who now have to rebook or switch to other means of transport. But what is the background to the labor dispute?

Superficially, it is about a classic collective bargaining conflict. The VC demands that the approximately 5,000 captains and first officers that it represents receive a salary increase of 5.5 percent in the current year and automatic inflation compensation from next year. According to VC, Lufthansa failed to “submit a significantly improved offer”. An exploratory round was also unsuccessful.

Lufthansa, on the other hand, considers its offer in the collective bargaining dispute to be appropriate. According to its own statements, the crane airline has offered a flat-rate increase in the monthly basic salary by EUR 900 each. Based on the term of 18 months, this would result in an increase of 18 percent for young professionals and 5 percent for captains in the final stage, Lufthansa announced. Regardless of the type of aircraft, a career starter would then have an annual gross salary of around 81,000 euros and a captain in the final stage would have a basic salary of almost 289,000 euros.

According to Lufthansa, VC’s demands would increase personnel costs in the cockpit by 40 percent. This is beyond reasonable, even without considering the financial consequences of the Corona crisis.

“Cityline 2” pilots should earn less

But in the background of the strike, it is not only the current tariff dispute that plays a role. The VC fears for their influence in the group and opposes the company’s personnel strategy. She wants to ensure that no further pilot positions are moved to subdivisions of the group – which would then not be covered by the current group collective agreement.

In the past, VC had the exact number of 325 aircraft guaranteed, which could only be flown by the captains and first officers who are subject to the group collective agreement. However, under the pressure of the Corona crisis, Lufthansa had terminated the corresponding agreement. The company began to set up new flight operations under the internal name “Cityline 2” and using the crane logo.

“Cityline 2” is to take over numerous flights from the previous core company in European traffic from the beginning of 2023. The 40 machines planned there are supposed to fly as a kind of backup solution, including pilots who lost their jobs at the subsidiary Eurowings in May. Eurowings had to give up flight operations two years ago. In the case of “Cityline 2”, significantly lower wage conditions apply than for the employees of the core group, the gross annual salaries for pilots should not exceed 200,000 euros here. The VC describes this as “tariff flight”.

VC has therefore always vehemently resisted attempts to outsource the core business under the Lufthansa brand to other airlines whose pilots earn less. Nevertheless, the business of Eurowings and the long-haul subsidiary Eurowings Discover, which intends to continue hiring pilots, has been expanded. In addition, the subsidiary Lufthansa Cityline also flies supplier connections to the hubs with smaller aircraft.

source site-32