BERLIN, April 10 (Xinhua) -- A strike of Lufthansa cabin crew grounded hundreds of flights in Germany on Friday, disrupting the travel plans of thousands of passengers at the end of the Easter holiday.
At Frankfurt Airport, 580 of 1,350 scheduled takeoffs and landings were cancelled on Friday, airport operator Fraport said, adding that the majority of the cancellations involved Lufthansa. About 75 percent of the airline's planned departures from Frankfurt were scrapped, according to the flight schedule.
The flight attendants' union UFO called on around 20,000 cabin crew members to stop working until 10 p.m. local time (2000 GMT) in a bid to break deadlocked labor talks with Lufthansa and its regional unit Cityline.
The union accused the airline of demanding significantly longer working hours and refusing to negotiate on a social agreement related to Cityline's planned shutdown next year.
It marks Lufthansa's third major labor stoppage this year, following two rounds of pilot strikes. ■