Last week at a Lufthansa AG company meeting the Supervisory Board approved the sale of the LSG Group’s European business to the world leading provider of full range catering services for the airline industry gategroup.
The contract was not detailed in the announcement but will be by both seller and buyer in the weeks ahead, the sale is subject to approval by antitrust authorities.
In a deal that was subject to much speculation and debate in both hospitality and financial media in recent months, and an outcome predicted by many as a good fit for both. Not all agree and opposition to the deal was voiced immediately following the announcement from German service-workers union, Verdi.
Verdi called a 24-hour strike at Deutsche Lufthansa’s catering unit LSG Sky Chefs over the sale of some operations to Gategroup Holding starting tomorrow, Monday 9th December.
Catering and wider operations will be affected at airports including, Frankfurt, Munich, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Stuttgart and Berlin. Flight delays and cancellations are likely, especially on long-haul routes, the union promised. Lufthansa aims to operate all flights, just how remains to be seen.