Lufthansa & Pilots Reach New Agreement, Sort Of

Lufthansa pilots went on strike earlier this month, and threatened to go on strike for another two days, but that ended up being called off at the last minute. There’s an important update on that front.

No more Lufthansa pilot strikes through June 2023

Lufthansa has announced that an agreement has been reached with Vereinigung Cockpit, the union representing pilots at Lufthansa and Lufthansa Cargo. With this, pilots will receive a 980 Euro per month increase in their basic pay, in two states. There will be a 490 Euro pay increase with retroactive effect from August 1, 2022, and a 490 Euro pay increase as of April 1, 2023.

With this, entry level first officers will essentially see a pay bump of around 20%, while senior captains will see a pay bump of about 5.5%. It’s easy to then work backwards and figure out roughly how much Lufthansa pilots make. It would seem entry level first officers make nearly 60,000 Euro per year, while senior captains make over 210,000 Euro per year, give or take.

This agreement also includes a peace obligation through June 30, 2023, meaning that there won’t be any strikes for the next 10 or so months.

Here’s how Michael Niggemann, Lufthansa’s Chief Human Resources Officer and Labor Director, describes this agreement:

“We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Vereinigung Cockpit. The increase in basic salary with uniform base amounts leads to the desired higher proportional increase in entry-level salaries. We now want to use the next few months in a trusting dialogue with Vereinigung Cockpit to find and implement sustainable solutions. The common goal is to continue to offer our pilots attractive and secure jobs with prospects for further development going foward.”

In reality, not much progress was made

This new contract isn’t at all what the union was looking for, but rather just kicks the can down the road, so to speak. Essentially the union is taking something for members while it continues to negotiate over the coming months.

The union describes this as agreeing “on the first key points in the current wage dispute,” and states that “this makes it possible to discuss and negotiate open issues without time pressure and within the framework of a peace obligation.”

Here’s how Matthias Baier, spokesperson for Vereinigung Cockpit, describes this agreement:

“This is to be seen as a positive signal towards the colleagues in the cockpit, the passengers and Lufthansa’s future viability. The collective agreements are still open, but the points to be negotiated can now discussed in a confidential setting.”

While the union views this as being able to negotiate for the next 10 months with no time pressure, I suspect management views this as being able to not negotiate for the next 10 months, until a strike looms once again. 😉

Bottom line

Lufthansa passengers don’t have to worry about another strike until the summer of 2023, as management and the union have reached a peace agreement. Lufthansa pilots are getting a pay raise of 980 Euro per month, while other topics will continue to be negotiated.

What do you make of this agreement between Lufthansa management and pilots?