Lufthansa walks the line: Profitability, acquisitions and pilot strikes don’t mix

Lufthansa Chairman and CEO Mayrhuber has a conflict. Hopefully it will remain at the conceptual level, and not become industrial. Last week, the airline transmitted a flurry of "it could be worse than it looks" messages, mainly for the consumption of Lufthansa's vigilant Vereinigung Cockpit pilots' union. The union is threatening action to oppose changes in crewing levels, underlaid with what will undoubtedly become a regular theme: how the operations of Lufthansa's various airlines will be integrated. In particular, they don't want Lufthansa to allow subsidiaries to fly LH-branded routes - among other sensitive issues.