Vereinigung Cockpit calls for a 72-hour warning strike from Monday 00:00 to Wednesday 23:59

In the dispute between the management of Eurowings Germany (EWD) and the Cockpit Association (VC), the next level of escalation has been reached. Late on Friday evening, the trade union at Eurowings Germany called for a strike, this time for three full days in a row.

Even if the autumn holidays in North Rhine-Westphalia, which is perhaps the most important state for Eurowings, end this weekend, the situation throughout Germany is different. On the now announced three strike days, the autumn holidays are running in 7 of the 16 federal states, the second most important holiday season for the German travel industry after the summer holidays. It is foreseeable that several thousand passengers in Germany and Europe will initially be stranded at the airports with "kids and cones" without a plan. Most recently, the pilots of Eurowings Germany stopped work for a day on October 06th, less than two weeks ago.

While the management of Eurowings only appealed to its own workforce with an "open letter" after the first call for a strike, after this call for a strike, which was now much more painful, online meetings with the pilots were quickly initiated for both today's Saturday and tomorrow's Sunday, apparently in the hope of being able to completely or at least partially avert the announced strikes.

During the first day of the strike on October 06th, 300 more than half of the 500 planned flights had to be cancelled. Around 31 passengers were affected. With the now announced 000-hour strike, these two indicators are likely to be significantly higher.

An interesting fact is that the content of this conflict is exclusively about improving the workload of the Eurowings cockpit staff and not about remuneration. The Cockpit Association, for example, calls for a limit on the maximum flight duty time and an extension of the rest periods for pilots. Furthermore, the union writes in its release that the cockpit employees at "EWD" are regularly planned up to the legal limit values, a circumstance which is acceptable as an exception, but not as a rule.

Eurowings will publish an alternative flight schedule for Monday, October 17 on the website on Sunday, followed by Tuesday and Wednesday at a later date. Since the management of Eurowings had relied on more than 15 wet lease aircraft from other providers in the current summer flight schedule, at least some EW flights will also be able to be operated on the strike days that have now been announced. Before leaving for the airport, however, we strongly recommend checking the flight status of the planned flight on the Eurowings homepage or in the app.

Flights operated by Eurowings Europe (EWE), which operates stations in Salzburg, Palma de Mallorca, Prague and Stockholm-Arlanda, among others, are not affected. Eurowings Discover flights are also taking place as scheduled, regardless of the call for a strike.