The GdF union, which represents air traffic control employees, has called for workers overseeing operations on the tarmac to go on strike from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Thursday, and from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday.
GdF is engaged in a dispute with airport operator Fraport over pay and working conditions for some 200 ground workers.
With 1,300 daily takeoffs and landings Frankfurt Airport is a key European hub behind London’s Heathrow and Paris’ Charles de Gaulle.
Fraport spokesman Juergen Harrer said the airport’s goal is to maintain at least half of those flights during the strikes, using other employees and ground workers not on strike to take over the duties of those off the job, which include things like helping park aircraft after they have landed.
“We have to assume that it will come to flight delays and cancelations,” he said, recommending that anyone scheduled to fly through Frankfurt check with their airline ahead of time.
GdF and Fraport have been unable to come to a new agreement after weeks of negotiations, and Harrer said the airport operator finds the demand for double-digit wage increases “absolutely unacceptable.”
“This is a small group of workers with the ability to massively limit flight traffic,” he said. “They are pushing their excessive demands on the backs of the passengers ... and the other workers.”
He called for the union to return to the negotiating table to work out a compromise.
GdF’s spokesman did not answer his telephone nor respond to e-mailed requests for comment.
