Lufthansa walkout grounds planes in French airport

A strike by Lufthansa workers at Paris’ main airport has caused flight cancellations and left hundreds of passengers stranded at terminals.

All Lufthansa airport staff at Charles de Gaulle Airport reported in sick and failed to show up Thursday morning, an official with the Paris airport authority reported.

There were no flight personnel available to help passengers register for one of the 22 Lufthansa flights in and out of Paris, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded early in the day, authorities said.

However, Lufthansa said that only two flights were officially canceled, and that travel was resuming in the afternoon.

Company managers persuaded staff to return to their posts later in the day.

UNSA union representative Frank Bonot said the group may stage a formal strike next week if they failed to secure a meeting with management regarding Lufthansa’s layoff plan scheduled to take effect in the coming days.

Germany’s main carrier Lufthansa has been seeking to boost profitability by announcing a slash in workforce around the world, including some 200 job cuts in France.

The announcement left many French workers tired and depressed, forcing several to take medical leaves.

In recent months, workers for Lufthansa held a series of strikes in Frankfurt and Berlin in a row with the airline’s management over payments and other issues, forcing the cancellation of many flights and leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

Lufthansa is Europe’s largest airline in terms of overall passengers traffic and fleet size.