“No comment.” Luxair CEO Gilles Feith’s response can be summed up in two words. Friday morning, the LCGB, which has the majority of the staff delegate positions at Luxair, and the OGBL, stated in a press release that they had referred the matter to the National Conciliation Service. “Despite Luxair’s excellent post-crisis recovery, which reached an historic milestone in 2023 by carrying more than 2.5m passengers, and which will certainly be exceeded again in 2024, management is maintaining its position and stubbornly refusing to come close enough to the unions’ demands for improvements in pay and working conditions for all staff,” the statement read, without giving any further details on the measures where discussions are stalling.
Contacted by telephone, LCGB union secretary Paul De Araujo was not much more specific. “Management is not going far enough. On the one hand, it is not responding to all the demands, and on the other, it is not responding to all employees in the same way. There are more than others,” he says. “It’s been a long time since there’s been a pay raise. But employees made great efforts before covid and now, with the recovery going rather well, it would be normal for management to improve its proposal.”
“Luxair operates in an increasingly dynamic and demanding environment, marked by financial pressures and heightened competition,” points out the management memo we have obtained. “At Luxembourg Airport, we are facing aggressive fare competition from low-cost airlines and the disruptive arrival of a second ground handler. In addition, regional airports such as Saarbrücken and Metz are capturing a growing share of air traffic. These challenges are accompanied by new regulations generating significant costs, notably linked to sustainable fuels, ReFuelEU (anti-tankering), taxes on CO2 emissions and increases in overflight charges, such as the 26% rise in terminal navigation charges (TNC) planned for 2025.”
The management insists, “To meet these challenges and guarantee our competitiveness, substantial investments are necessary, with benefits expected in the medium and long term. Luxair has launched an ambitious development plan based on strategic pillars such as:
- The complete renewal of the fleet in order to integrate larger, more efficient, more comfortable and environmentally-friendly aircraft;
- Expanding our network to attract new markets and retain our existing customers;
- Continuous improvement of service quality to meet customer expectations and maintain our high standards;
- Immediate actions, such as recruiting and training pilots, are also essential to this transition and to maintaining operational performance;
- the additional costs associated with training to integrate the new fleet exceed €15m, contributing to a negative budget of €4m for 2025--not counting in full the measures proposed as part of the collective labour agreement.”
On Thursday, recruitment platform Moovijob announced that .
This article was originally published in .