Lufthansa flights expected to return to normal

A Lufthansa spokesperson said early on Thursday that Germany's flag carrier airline anticipated no further disruptions to its regular flight schedule.

"We expect normal flight service without any cancellations," the spokesperson said.

This comes a day after a regional labor court in Frankfurt, where Lufthansa has its headquarters, ruled in favor of management and ordered the pilots, represented by the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) trade union to return to work.

The decision by the regional court overturned an earlier verdict by the lower Frankfurt labor court, which on Tuesday evening had declined Lufthansa's request for an injunction.

The presiding judge found that not only was the union striking over early retirement provisions that the airline wants to cut, but was also seeking to influence the company's corporate strategy.

For months, the union and management have been at loggerheads over Lufthansa's creation and expansion of Eurowings, a low-cost subsidiary. As it is incorporated in Austria, it is not subject to German labor agreements reached through collective bargaining.

Lufthansa argues that it needs to reduce costs in order to fight off competition from budget air carriers such as easyJet and Ryanair.

The latest walkout was the 13th by pilots represented by VC in the space of 18 months. It was also the first since March, when an Airbus operated by Lufthansa's Germanwings subsidiary crashed into a mountainside in the French Alps, killing all 150 people on board.

Lufthansa has put the cost of the strikes to the airline at more than 300 million euros ($334 million) over the past two years.

pfd/se (Reuters, dpa)