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

BERLIN (AP) — Ground staff for Lufthansa have walked off the job at five major German airports, 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 assumed it would 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.