Pilots and flight attendants at Lufthansa Group’s leisure airline Discover Airlines will stage a coordinated four-day strike from Tuesday, August 27, to Friday, August 30, to continue the ongoing dispute over wages and working conditions.
Discover Airlines was founded in September 2023 as Lufthansa’s new leisure-oriented airline and offers both short- and long-haul flights from its Frankfurt hub.
Critics of the airline argue that Discover Airlines was founded solely for the purpose of saving costs for the German Lufthansa Group by hiring employees at lower wages and with worse working conditions than their colleagues at the group’s main airline of the same name.
Since its founding, Discover Airlines has been hit by waves of strikes. In December 2023 and January 2024, pilots went on strike due to delays in reaching agreement on a collective bargaining agreement.
The latest strike is likely to be the longest to date: pilots and flight attendants are expected to refuse to work on all Discover flights departing from a German airport between Tuesday and Friday.
The Vereinigung Cockpit union, which represents pilots at Discover, said in a brief statement that the aim of the strike was to conclude a collective agreement and a general collective agreement for its members at the airline.
Meanwhile, the UFO union, which represents flight crews, said it was growing frustrated with Discover’s unwillingness to negotiate and was instead trying to select another union to represent the airline’s cabin crew.
The UFO has listed a number of demands, including the guarantee of more days off per month and more vacation days for cabin crew, as well as more schedule stability and better pay for flight attendants.
A spokesperson for Discover Airlines said the airline is trying to avoid flight disruptions but warned passengers to check the status of their flight in the event of a flight cancellation. The airline did not comment on the status of contract negotiations.
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