While the summer season is in full swing and Lufthansa struggling to meet its ambitious program due to a lack of manpower, it finds a way out by offering its flight attendants a bonus of 200 € whenever they volunteer to work on their days off.
Lufthansa reportedly rejected a plan to hire temporary cabin crew only for the summer season (a group of workers the airline had relied on in the past), but the airline then realized that it had no other crew to meet the growing demand for travel. No longer having time to hire additional staff, the Munich and Frankfurt-based carrier now relies on financial incentives to make his flight attendant And stewards on their days off, give up planned rest days and postpone vacations until the summer rush is over.
The PNC UFO union said it was not surprised when Lufthansa approached it to negotiate voluntary measures to save the summer. In a memo, the union warned that the difficulties felt by its members continued to be “palpable” despite last summer’s scenes of chaos not being repeated in 2023.
In addition to the €200 bonus for working during his days off, there is that of 250 € for each day of voluntary work (which would place these Cabin Crew Members below the minimum number of guaranteed rest days per month), and that of 100 € additional paid to flight attendants who must assume a role of Purser on long-haul flights (Lufthansa currently does not have enough trained pursers on this type of flight).
Last week, the CEO of Lufthansa, Carsten Spohradmitted that it was thanks to the hard work of airline employees that she brought in profits massive post-pandemics. Lufthansa Group more than tripled its net profit in the second quarter year on year, driven by strong travel demand, and expects to post one of the best annual results in its history. “Thanks to the great efforts of our employees, we were able to avoid a situation like last summer and once again offer our customers a more stable operation”commented the CEO as the airline announced a turnover of 9.4 billion euros in the second quarter.
