Lufthansa agrees cost-cutting deal with pilots
By Frank Prenesti
Date: Wednesday 23 Dec 2020
(Sharecast News) - Lufthansa has agreed a cost-cutting programme with the pilots union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) that will secure jobs until end-March 2022, the company said on Wednesday.
The German flagship carrier said the deal could help save up to €450m as it battles the impact of global travel restrictions and grounded fleets amid the coronavirus pandemic.
It added that the deal includes an extension of shortened working hours in 2021 under the government's Kurzarbeit scheme as well as a reduction in working hours with corresponding salary cuts and the suspension of collective pay increases.
"Lufthansa is ruling out layoffs of pilots for operational reasons at Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo, Lufthansa Aviation Training and a subgroup of Germanwings pilots until March 2022," the airline said.
Lufthansa staff and legal affairs director Michael Niggemann said the company "want to use the time covered by this crisis collective agreement to agree on sustainable structural solutions with VC in response to the changed conditions and to be able to avoid layoffs even after the crisis agreement has expired".
VC president Markus Wahl said: "We are relieved that... we have succeeded in protecting the cockpit staff against compulsory layoffs at least until 31 March 2022."
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