On a Wednesday evening in March back in 2010 at the Light + Building fair, I was ardently promoting Light Emitting Plasma(tm) technology, adjacent to Jerry Kalb’s booth. Jerry mentioned his plans to leave for home that night. To my surprise, he reappeared the next morning. Initially, I thought he had too much beer and missed his flight. However, Jerry explained that the eruption of a volcano in Iceland had halted flights over Frankfurt. I found the story so far-fetched that I couldn’t help but laugh—until I was confronted with the same reality and had to take a lengthy train to Rome to find a flight home.
In a striking parallel, the current Light + Building event is being impacted by a Lufthansa strike scheduled from 4 a.m. on Thursday to 7:10 a.m. on Saturday. This action is rippling through the event as many attendees rely on code-share flights. We’ve learned of an executive from a prominent US-based manufacturer who, upon hearing the news, promptly altered his plans and departed earlier today to avoid the disruption.
Additionally, concerns about being stranded have led to at least one potential attendee opting out of the fair altogether. Donny Wall from Bill Brown Sales reported that his dismantling team’s arrival coincided with the strike, and the A.L.P. team is working hard to devise a new plan. Moreover, Patty Price from the Dallas Market Center, set to fly with Lufthansa, was not aware of the upcoming strike.
Stacey Westbrook from Parrot PR & Marketing said that a one-way direct flight from Frankfurt to London, the evening before the strike, now costs €900.
To further complicate matters, The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) has announced that it will begin a new wave of nationwide strikes starting on Wednesday, 6 March which will affect Deutch Bahn. My colleague, Ray Molony, editor of designing lighting global (dlg) magazine, purposely took the train from London to Frankfurt, because it was more sustainable, even though it cost more and was significantly less convenient. Now he is faced with purchasing last-minute airfare, hopefully not on Lufthansa.
Developing…