Lufthansa has reached an agreement with the trade union, ver.di, representing its striking ground staff, and will resume its full schedule within approximately two weeks.

The walkout saw an estimated 5000 ground and cabin staff of the German carrier taking part in what they were calling an indefinite strike, and causing 78 cancellations of flights on Wednesday alone.

Union members had staged the action due to a lack of progress in a dispute over pay and in rejection of the airline’s proposed 6.7 per cent pay increase offered over a 21 month period.

After talks between the two sides that were described as “difficult and agonising”, ver.di accepted a pay rise of 5.1 per cent on behalf of its members. The increase is to be backdated to 1 July, with an additional 2.3 per cent effective from 1 July 2009.

Shortly after the agreement was reached, Lufthansa executive board member Stefan Lauer commented that he hoped the deal would “be compensated by higher productivity”.

“It is certainly not painless for either side,” he added, saying that Lufthansa “will go to every length to resume flight operations quickly for our customers in the customary reliability and quality”.

The agreement officially applies to Lufthansa ground staff only, but observers expect that it will soon be extended to the carrier’s cabin crew as well.

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