Austrian Airlines cancels 150 flights during union negotiations

Austrian Airlines cancelled 150 out of 380 flights, or 40%, on March 22 for continued union negotiations, affecting more than 12,000 passengers. Austrian said the cancellations were made because of works council meetings, which included cockpit and cabin crew members. Affected by the cancellation were flights between Vienna and Amsterdam, Basel, Bologna, Berlin, Belgrade, Brussels, Bucharest, Cairo, Copenhagen, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva, Graz, Hamburg, Innsbruck, Kiev, Leipzig, London, Lyon, Milan, Minsk, Moscow, Munich, Paris, Prague, Sofia, Stuttgart, Teheran, Tel Aviv, Warsaw, Venice, Zagreb and Zurich. The flights to Washington and Toronto also had to be canceled. The flight to Newark had to be canceled because of weather conditions on the US east coast. Austrian Airlines CEO Kay Kratky said: “The short-term expansion of the combat measures clearly indicates that the union's and the works council’s target is a disruption. It is incomprehensible and absolutely unacceptable to us that higher salary demands are carried out on the backs of our customers while competition is intensifying as well.” Austrian Airlines has 3,900 cockpit and crew members.<br/>