Pilot strike by Lufthansa partner airline forces flights to be cancelled

A five-hour pilot strike at Contact Air, a Lufthansa partner airline, forced several airports in Germany to cancel a total of 15 flights on 21 January 2009. Most of the affected flights were German domestic and short-haul European flights from the Dusseldorf (EDDL/DUS), Hannover (EDDV/HAJ), Hof (EDQM/HOO), Nuremberg (EDDN/ NUE) and Stuttgart airports (EDDS/STR). The strike, which began at 0430 local time (0330 UTC), was a pressure tactic by pilot unions calling for progress in an ongoing wage dispute with company officials.