Union criticises Lufthansa’s launch plan for new leisure unit

German pilot union Vereinigung Cockpit has expressed scepticism about Lufthansa’s planned a new leisure subsidiary Ocean, and intends to oppose efforts by the airline to employ crews without collective labour agreements. Citing internal group communications, including job adverts, the union says Lufthansa plans to launch operations with three long-haul aircraft in the spring of 2021. Lufthansa has previously said that Ocean is being modelled on group carrier Swiss’s leisure subsidiary Edelweiss and will operate long- and short-haul tourist flights from the mainline’s Frankfurt and Munich hubs to “complement the portfolio of Lufthansa and Eurowings”. The union believes Lufthansa intends to recruit internal staff for the new unit and says: “So far, the group does not plan to employ staff on terms that apply to the [mainline].” Employees will effectively reapply for jobs to operate routes previously served by Lufthansa, on “significantly worse” conditions than at the mainline, the union suggests. Marcel Grols, the union’s head of collective bargaining policy, states that “a company like Lufthansa must plan seriously”, and calls on the airline to negotiate a collective union agreement for Ocean. Lufthansa confirms that on 9 September it started an internal recruitment initiative to employ 300 flight- and cabin crew for Ocean – “to offer Lufthansa Group employees a perspective in these difficult times”. Interested staff must apply to Ocean – a standalone company with its own AOC – but Lufthansa notes that the new entity’s name will not serve as a customer-facing brand. The group says it decided before the pandemic to “bundle” leisure operations to improve its position in that market. “Even before the crisis, we saw large growth potential in the tourism segment, and believe that demand for leisure flights will recover significantly faster than for business travel.”<br/>