Lufthansa sacks over 100 Indian cabin crew

Lufthansa has terminated the services of 103 Indian cabin crew citing the impact of the pandemic on the airline. The crew were earlier given leave-without-pay option for two years without any assurance of reinstatement.

New Delhi: Employees of the German carrier Lufthansa on Friday protested at Delhi Airport's Aerocity as the airline laid-off 103 Indian cabin crew members citing COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the airline.

According to an airline official, Lufthansa had about 140 cabin crew based in India and it was operating 42 flights per week to India before the coronavirus induced-lockdown. But now, the airline operates 10 flights per week under the air bubble arrangement.

“We were put on leave without pay for two years. We were asking for assurance from the airline for the staff in India to be retained after two years but we didn’t get any such assurance and suddenly we were fired,” an airline official told on the basis of anonymity.

In a statement to ETV Bharat, the airline said, “Lufthansa regrets to confirm that it will not be extending the fixed-term employment contracts of its Delhi-based flight attendants. The severe financial impact of the Coronavirus pandemic leaves Lufthansa no choice but to restructure the airline. This includes personnel-related measures in Germany and Europe as well as in key international markets like India.”

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The airline said that given our current cash burn of several hundred million euros every month, Lufthansa – like all airlines worldwide – must take steps to secure its future.

"Since we must plan with 150 fewer aircraft in the long run (by 2025), it follows that required cabin staff in all our markets is also affected. Even now, low demand for international air travel resulting particularly from government restrictions leaves cabin staff with little or no work left to do," it added.

"Not being able to reach an agreement for cabin crew with fixed-term employment contracts forces us to take this step as part of an inevitable restructuring of Lufthansa Group," it said.

It should be noted that this restructuring is not limited to India but affects all our worldwide markets and to a great extent includes our home markets, especially Germany. However, there we were able to reach initial agreements with unions to help weather the crisis,” Lufthansa added.

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