Türkiye's flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) announced it canceled some of its flights both to and from Germany due to a planned strike action of aviation workers in the country that was set to take place on Thursday.
A union has called on security staff at most of Germany's major airports to stage a one-day strike on Thursday as it steps up pressure on employers in a pay dispute and seeks better working conditions.
Turkish Airlines said that flights connecting the Turkish metropolis, Istanbul, and the capital, Ankara, to Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hanover, Dusseldorf, Leipzig, Stuttgart and Cologne were canceled.
According to the information from local media, the dozens of flights on these routes, that were due to take off from both Istanbul Airport and Sabiha Gökçen Airport on the city's Anatolian side, as well as from Ankara's Esenboğa Airport were canceled on Thursday.
Similarly, according to the live screen tracker information from Sabiha Gökçen Airport, the flights of low-jet Pegasus Airlines en route to Hamburg, Cologne, Paderborn, Berlin, Hamburg and Dusseldorf were canceled on Thursday morning.
Aviation workers are set to stage a one-day strike at airports in the aforementioned cities and Erfurt in the central part of the country, according to The Associated Press (AP) although Munich airport, Germany's second-busiest isn't affected by the workers' action.
The Verdi trade union said it has been negotiating on behalf of 25,000 aviation workers nationwide with the Federal Association of Aviation Security Companies (BDLS).
Three rounds of talks so far haven't produced a settlement as Verdi is seeking a raise of 2.80 euros per hour ($3.03) for all employees and calling for bonuses for overtime work to kick in from the first extra hour.
The employers' association says it has offered a 4% raise this year and 3% next year, as well as concessions on when overtime bonuses kick in. Talks are due to resume on Feb. 6.
"Warning strikes" of limited length are a common tactic in German pay disputes. In a separate dispute, Verdi has called for strikes Friday on local public transport systems in much of the country.
Those will not affect the mainline railway system, which has been hit recently by a bitter pay dispute that resulted in full-scale strikes. The GDL union, which represents many of Germany's train drivers, on Monday ended a five-day strike earlier than originally planned after agreeing to resume talks with the state-owned main railway operator, Deutsche Bahn.
That dispute centers on a demand by GDL for shift workers' hours to be reduced from 38 to 35 per week without a pay cut.