The pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit criticizes that Tui will charter flights from Saarbrücken and Basel from mid-May 2021 can be carried out by Smartlynx. The employee representatives are of the opinion that the group's own Tuifly can do the same and accuse the group, in which the Federal Republic of Germany is involved, of avoiding collective bargaining agreements.

"We condemn this approach, which is an affront to the entire workforce," says Marcel Gröls, who is responsible for collective bargaining policy on the board of the Cockpit Association. “Tui's short-sighted and anti-social strategy costs around 200 cockpit jobs at Tuifly in Germany, as well as hundreds more in the cabin, technology and administration. The group's flight from collective bargaining harms not only the employees, but also the reputation of the company. The fact that tariffed jobs subject to social security contributions are being cut in Germany while dumping providers come into play is and remains absolutely incomprehensible, especially against the background of state aid amounting to a good five billion euros ”.

Due to the corona pandemic, Tuifly reduced the fleet to 22 aircraft. The long-distance comeback planned in Düsseldorf has been postponed indefinitely. According to the Cockpit Association, the original plan was to reduce the number of aircraft even further. Negotiations agreed on 22 machines.