Frankfurt and Munich airports suspend flights as strikes hit Germany

Millions affected as unions stage 24-hour walkout over pay and conditions

Workers picket the terminal hall at Frankfurt airport during a nationwide transport strike. EPA

Frankfurt and Munich airports have suspended hundreds of flights after Germany suffered one of its largest walkouts in decades.

Millions of travellers and commuters have been affected by the 24-hour walkouts called by the Verdi trade union and railway and transport union EVG amid industrial action that has hit major European economies due to higher food and energy prices.

Disruption at two of the country's largest airports, Munich and Frankfurt am Main, caused many airlines, including Emirates and Etihad, to cancel some services on Sunday and Monday.

The Airports Association ADV estimated that 380,000 air passengers were affected by flight suspensions including at Munich and Frankfurt airports.

In Frankfurt alone, almost 1,200 flights for 160,000 passengers were cancelled, and some stranded travellers resorted to sleeping on benches.

Long-distance rail services have also been cancelled by German rail operator Deutsche Bahn. Striking workers wearing yellow or red high-visibility jackets blew horns, sirens and whistles, held up banners and waved flags during protests.

In Cologne, the lack of city trains prompted a dash for taxis.

“Millions of passengers who depend on buses and trains are suffering from this excessive, exaggerated strike,” a Deutsche Bahn representative said on Monday.

The Verdi union is negotiating on behalf of about 2.5 million employees in the public sector, including in public transport and at airports, while EVG negotiates for around 230,000 employees at railway operator Deutsche Bahn and bus companies.

“Employees are fed up with being fobbed off with warm words while work conditions get ever worse and there are many vacant posts,” Verdi chief Frank Werneke told reporters.

German consumer prices rose more than anticipated in February — up 9.3 per cent from a year earlier — as cost pressures remained even as the European Central Bank has been trying to tame them with a series of interest rate increases.

EVG chairman Martin Burkert warned that further strikes were possible, including over the Easter holiday period.

“We have been dragged along here for too long. The big ones benefit and the small ones, who keep everything running, get nothing,” said striking worker Christoph Gerschner. “People have second or third jobs to make ends meet.”

If independent mediation yields no result, “then the situation will get very dark in Germany”, said Ulrich Silberbach, head of the German Civil Service Association (DBB). “Then we will have to launch an indefinite, nationwide industrial action.”