Lufthansa Resumes Operations at Berlin Brandenburg Airport Following Cabin Crew Strike

Lufthansa resumed flights at Berlin Brandenburg Airport on Saturday morning, April 11, 2026, a day after a cabin crew strike organized by the Ufo union forced the cancellation of nearly all of Lufthansa's domestic German connections at the airport. The first flights to Munich and Frankfurt departed as planned in the early morning hours, according to an airport spokesperson who spoke to the German news agency dpa. „Everything is flying according to plan, including Lufthansa” — Airport spokesperson via dpa The strike had been scheduled to run until 10:00 p.m. on Friday and primarily targeted Lufthansa's major hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. The return to normal operations brought relief to passengers who had faced a disrupted Friday at the capital's airport.

Strike hit domestic routes hardest on Friday The industrial action called by Ufo had brought near-total disruption to Lufthansa's intra-German network at BER on Friday, with almost all domestic connections cancelled for the duration of the work stoppage. The strike centered on Lufthansa's two largest German hubs, Frankfurt and Munich, which serve as the main connection points for passengers traveling between Berlin and other German cities. Lufthansa, Germany's national carrier headquartered in Cologne with its primary base at Frankfurt Airport, operates a significant share of domestic routes out of BER. The cancellations left travelers scrambling for alternative arrangements on one of the busiest travel days of the week. By Saturday morning, the airline had restored its schedule, ending the immediate disruption to air passengers.

Rail passengers face a separate weekend ordeal While air travel at BER stabilized, passengers relying on rail connections to reach the airport faced a distinct set of challenges over the same weekend due to planned construction work. The Airport Express (FEX) between Berlin Central Station and BER was completely cancelled for the duration of the construction period, according to Deutsche Bahn. The regional express RE20 also stopped running between Berlin Central Station and the airport. The RB22 line, which normally runs from Potsdam-Griebnitzsee via Golm and BER to Königs Wusterhausen, was interrupted from Ludwigsfelde-Struveshof. All disruptions on the rail network were set to continue until 5:00 a.m. on Monday morning.

Two lines remain, but only as far as the airport Travelers arriving from Berlin retained limited rail access to BER through the RB32 and RB24 lines, both of which run via Berlin-Ostkreuz, but those routes came with their own restrictions. The RB24 was suspended between BER and Blankenfelde, meaning passengers could reach the airport but could not continue to destinations south of it. Similarly, the RB32 was suspended between BER and Ludwigsfelde, cutting off onward travel in that direction as well. The combination of the Ufo strike's aftermath and the weekend rail disruptions placed BER passengers in an unusually constrained position on Saturday, forced to navigate both the residual effects of the labor dispute and the infrastructure maintenance schedule simultaneously. Passengers were advised to plan journeys carefully and allow additional travel time when using the limited rail options available.

Labor disputes involving cabin crew unions and major European carriers have periodically disrupted air travel across Germany in recent years. Lufthansa, as Germany's largest airline, operates an extensive domestic network connecting Berlin to Frankfurt and Munich, which function as the airline's primary transfer hubs. Berlin Brandenburg Airport, which opened in 2020 after years of delays, serves as the sole commercial airport for the German capital following the closure of the former Tegel and Schönefeld airports.