Lufthansa's UAE flights cancelled due to pilots' strike

German carrier Lufthansa’s UAE and neighbouring Gulf operations have been hampered badly due to the pilots’ strike and cancelled all flights for three days starting Wednesday (April 2).

The airline has cancelled its three daily flights from the UAE to Germany, said Karsten Zang, General Manager for UAE and Director for Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“We have a lot of cancellations unfortunately (because) without pilots we cannot fly. It will be major disruptions but our teams in all the countries did a marvelous job and tried to keep the impact to passengers as small as possible,” Zang told Emirates 24l7 in an interview.

Lufthansa’s last flight took off on Wednesday morning but later flights have been cancelled. Flights from other neighbouring countries have also been cancelled due to strike.

Zang said passengers who had Lufthansa bookings were booked with other airlines to ensure that passengers reach their destinations in time. The number of passengers shifted to other airlines was not disclosed.

Lufthansa said earlier this week that 3,800 flights have been cancelled during April 2-4 due to a planned walkout by pilots.

Lufthansa units affected by the strikes would normally operate around 4,300 flights over the three days, but the walkout means it will be able to operate just 500 short and long-haul flights during the three-day period, it said.

Zang was speaking at a roadshow in Dubai organised by the airline and Germany's tourism authorities.

GCC-Germany tourism grows

Till Weigl, Destination Manager for Asia and Australia with German National Tourist Board, said inbound tourism from the GCC countries to Germany has witnessed steady growth over the years and the trend continued in 2013 also.

Weigl said the number of overnight stays from the GCC increased 20 per cent year-on-year in 2013 with a big chunk of tourists going from the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

“In 2013, we had 20 per cent increase totalling 1.5 million overnight stays by Gulf tourists. Germany saw 260,000 more overnight stays from this region last year with Bavaria most favourite market for Gulf tourists but Berlin and Hamburg are also being discovered now,” Weigl said.

The German tourism body targets two million overnight stays from the Gulf region by 2020, Weigl said, adding that average spending by per GCC visitor was around 4,2000 euros.

Most of the medical tourists, according to Weigl, that Germany receives come from Russia and Gulf countries.

Adnan Ben Abdallah, Marketing Manager for Gulf, said tourist arrivals have grown steadily over the last 5 years, averaging 20 per cent growth year-on-year.

“We hope to achieve 2 million overnight stay targets for 2020 well ahead. In fact, we’ll achieve target in the next couple of years because Germany has been quite a popular among the Gulf residents,” Ben Abdallah said.

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