(Repeat as Roundup 2. New: Updated with some flight cancellations.)

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - The strike by flying personnel affected the operations of Lufthansa subsidiary Discover Airlines on Friday. The comparatively small vacation airline with 24 aircraft was unable to fly ten connections on behalf of its parent company Lufthansa in Munich and had to cancel four of 14 planned departures in Frankfurt. The remaining flights were offered by Discover itself or partner airlines, as a spokeswoman reported. The connections from Munich were flown by Lufthansa itself.

The pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) had started the strike on Friday night. The flight attendants of the cabin crew union Ufo, who had also called an all-day warning strike, were also involved. Flights to Cancun in Mexico and to the Canary Islands destinations of Fuerteventura and Tenerife were already canceled in the morning. Return flights from the islands were also canceled. One of two flights to Windhoek (Namibia) was canceled for the evening, albeit for technical reasons, according to a spokeswoman. Strikes can only affect departures from Germany, but this can also have consequences for connecting flights.

Even though it was possible to close most of the gaps with management pilots and other group airlines, the strike can be considered a success, said Ufo negotiator Harry Jaeger. "We gave them a real scare."

Good solutions had been found for all booked passengers, said the Discover spokesperson. However, the strike had meant a great deal of effort and a significant financial burden for the company.

The collective bargaining dispute concerns the first collective agreements at the vacation airline, which was founded two and a half years ago and currently has 24 aircraft. The cooperation between pilots and flight attendants should make it more difficult for the planners to find sufficient staff for the flights, according to trade union circles. The company announced that it would raise pilots' salaries "in the near future" on a voluntary basis, as had already been done in the cabin with retroactive effect from September 2023.

The Lufthansa Group's vacation airline was initially launched in the coronavirus summer of 2021 under the name "Eurowings Discover" and later renamed "Discover Airlines". It is intended to be more cost-effective than the Lufthansa core brand and compete with vacation airlines such as Condor./ceb/DP/men