Germany's Lufthansa cancels hundreds of flights as its ground staff strike for a day at 5 airports

Ground staff for Lufthansa have walked off the job at five major German airports, causing the airline to cancel hundreds of flights

BERLIN -- Ground staff for Lufthansa walked off the job at five major German airports on Wednesday, causing the airline to cancel hundreds of flights.

The Ver.di union called on ground staff at Frankfurt and Munich, Lufthansa's two main hubs, as well as Berlin, Duesseldorf and Hamburg, to strike for 27 hours starting at 4 a.m. Wednesday.

Lufthansa said ahead of the strike that it expected to be able to operate around 10-20% of all planned flights. It said tickets could be rebooked free of charge, and tickets for German domestic flights could be converted to rail vouchers.

In Frankfurt, the company canceled 80-90% of the planned 600 departures and arrivals by Lufthansa itself and subsidiary Air Dolomiti ahead of the strike, German news agency dpa reported. More than 400 departures and arrivals at Munich Airport also were canceled.

All Lufthansa departures from Berlin and Hamburg were canceled, as were most domestic flights from Duesseldorf. Lufthansa anticipated that, in all, more than 100,000 people would have to change their travel plans.