Deutsche Lufthansa AG share price up, cancels flights due to pilots walkouts over better wages and retirement benefits

The strike of Deutsche Lufthansa AG pilots, who are seeking better wages and retirement benefits, may turn into the longest walkout in the history of the company. The pilots of the airline were reported to have become the reason for the cancellation of 3 800 flights over the next three days, which would affect a total of approximately 425 000 passengers and cause losses estimated to tens of millions of euros.

One of the analysts, who work for Goodbody Stockbrokers Ltd commented for Bloomberg: “It’s a significant number of cancellations, given that an even split over the three days would represent well over half their average daily capacity.”

Earlier this week Deutsche Lufthansa AG, which is currently considered as the biggest airline by passenger traffic in Europe, warned its passengers about the strike and even has increased the number of employees, who work at Frankfurt and Munich airports in order to facilitate the process of rebooking.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the company revealed that it was forced to ground 3 800 flights and it will operate about 500 Lufthansa and Germanwings flights and eight of the 31 cargo flights.

The Vereinigung Cockpit pilots’ union, which represents between 85 and 90% of the 5,400 pilots working for Lufthansa, did not manage to reach an agreement with the airline on the matters concerning better payment and retirement benefits, which became the main reason for the pilots strikes. As a result, only about 500 flights will be carried out over the period of the walkouts.

As reported by Bloomberg, one of the spokesmen working for Vereinigung Cockpit said in a telephone interview that the pilots represented by the labour group are ready to proceed with the negotiations “if Lufthansa were to approach us with a suitable offer”.

Deutsche Lufthansa AG rose by 1.19% to 19.63 euros per share in Frankfurt by 13:47 GMT, marking a one-year change of +26.82% up. The airline is valued at 8.94 billion euros. According to the Financial Times, the 27 analysts offering 12 month price targets for Deutsche Lufthansa AG have a median target of 21.00 euros, with a high estimate of 26.50 euros and a low estimate of 13.50 euros. The median estimate represents a 8.28% increase from the previous close of of 19.40 euros.