Trump confronts repeated boos during raucous Libertarian convention speech
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing Saturday night’s Libertarian Party National Convention.
More than 1,000 Lufthansa flights were cancelled Wednesday because of a one-day strike by the airline's German ground staff, affecting tens of thousands of passengers in the latest travel turmoil to hit Europe.
About 134,000 passengers had to change their travel plans or cancel them altogether. At least 47 connections were cancelled Tuesday, German news agency dpa reported.
Lufthansa's main hubs in Frankfurt and Munich were most affected, but flights were also cancelled in Duesseldorf, Hamburg, Berlin, Bremen, Hannover, Stuttgart and Cologne.
The airline advised affected passengers not to go to airports because most service counters would be unstaffed. Airport terminals were unusually empty during the early morning hours, but people lined up at ticket counters later trying to find replacements for their cancelled flights, dpa reported.
Many of the stranded passengers had arrived in Germany from abroad to find out that their connecting flights were grounded due to the walkout.
At Frankfurt airport, 725 of 1,160 scheduled flights were cancelled for the day, according to a spokesperson for airport operator Fraport. Flights operated by other airlines, which are usually supported by Lufthansa ground staff, were also affected, dpa reported.
Flights operated by Lufthansa Group companies such as Swiss International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines and Italian regional airline Air Dolomiti were also cancelled. In addition, planes from Croatia Airlines, United Airlines, Air Canada and Poland’s LOT were unable to take off, dpa reported.
The ver.di service workers’ union announced the strike Monday as it seeks to raise pressure on Lufthansa in pay negotiations for about 20,000 employees of logistical, technical and cargo divisions of the airline.
"Lufthansa did not make an adequate offer in the first two rounds" of negotiations, a union spokesperson, Dennis Dacke, said Wednesday.
“It is time for the employees to express their opinion now before the third round of negotiations,” Dacke said. "This is a ‘warning strike,’ and the effects are visible. We hope that Lufthansa will not provoke another one in the future.”
Lufthansa spokesperson Martin Leutke criticized the strikes as harmful.
“People who wanted to travel, who planned vacations for a long time, who waited for vacations, had these vacation dreams unfortunately postponed ... maybe even destroyed by the strike,” Leutke told reporters in Frankfurt. “This strike is completely unnecessary. It is also completely exaggerated.”
Airports in Germany and across Europe were already seeing disruption and long lines for security checks because of staff shortages and soaring travel demand.
As inflation soars, strikes for higher pay by airport crews in France and Scandinavian Airlines pilots in Sweden, Norway and Denmark have deepened the disruption. Travellers have faced last-minute cancellations, lengthy delays, lost luggage or long waits for bags in airports across Europe.
Travel is booming this summer after two years of COVID-19 restrictions, swamping airlines and airports that don’t have enough workers after pandemic-era layoffs. Airports like London’s Heathrow and Amsterdam’s Schiphol have limited daily flights or passenger numbers.
The Lufthansa strike started Wednesday at 3:45 a.m. local time and is set to end Thursday at 6 a.m.
Ver.di is calling for a 9.5 per cent pay increase this year and says an offer by Lufthansa earlier this month, which would involve a deal for an 18-month period, fell far short of its demands.
Donald Trump was booed repeatedly while addressing Saturday night’s Libertarian Party National Convention.
Two-time PGA Tour winner Grayson Murray died Saturday morning at age 30, one day after he withdrew from the Charles Schwab Cup Challenge at Colonial.
A year has passed since two-year-old Vienna Irwin was found on the property of a home-based daycare in small-town Ontario, but her family says they are no closer to answers of what happened that day.
After 22 witnesses, including a porn actor, tabloid publisher and White House insiders, testimony is over at Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York.
One of the country’s homeless shelters has seen an uptick in the number of people through its doors, including more older adults over 50.
According to some experts, there is one type of screen time that is continuously excessive, and it's having a severe effect on our children.
Norway on Sunday handed over diplomatic papers to the Palestinian prime minister in the latest step toward recognizing a Palestinian state, a largely symbolic move that has infuriated Israel.
The Toronto-based research arm of life sciences technology firm Klick Health has found a way to analyze voices in a manner that’s so granular, it can tell whether it's a person or an artificial intelligence-powered machine.
The statue of J.H. Tabaret at the University of Ottawa (uOttawa) has been vandalized, as a picture taken by CTV News shows red paint sprayed all over it.
When one is extended an invitation to the Royal Garden Party in London, England, there's undoubtedly no shortage of pomp and circumstance. Barrie, Ont. natives Megan Kirk Chang and her husband Brandon experienced just that as they entered the prestigious event hosted at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.
An unlikely celebrity emerged from social media to cheer on the Edmonton Oilers as they face the Dallas Stars tonight in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.
The proprietors of Regina's sole discount theatre are aware they're carrying on a significant legacy.
When Jujhar Mann said he wanted to be a pastry chef on a grade school career project, he didn't imagine that pursuing his dream would land him on a popular Netflix baking competition.
A city known for its history, ties to outer space and southern barbecue, is also home to a Winnipeg chef dishing out dozens of perogies.
A Montreal photographer captured the moment a Canada goose defended itself from a fox at the Botanical Garden.
Public libraries in Atlantic Canada are now lending a broader range of items.
Flashes of purple darting across the sky mixed with the serenading sound of songs will be noticed more with spring in full force in Manitoba.
Catching 'em all with impressive speed, a 7-year-old boy from Windsor, Ont. who only started his competitive Pokémon journey seven months ago has already levelled up to compete at a world championship level.