Staff at German airports are set to begin a walkout that could ground thousands more flights on Monday - after only 10 of more than 280 departures and arrivals went as planned on Sunday.

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Flight cancellations at Hamburg Airport after a surprise strike by workers affected more than 40,000 passengers on Sunday, a day before a planned wider protest across Germany amid new contract negotiations.

The airport in Germany’s second largest city said the one-day strike, called over pay and conditions, began earlier than expected “without any notice.”

Other airports to be affected on Monday include Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne/Bonn, Duesseldorf, Dortmund, Hanover, Bremen, Berlin and Leipzig-Halle.

A one-day strike by workers at 13 German airports, including the Frankfurt and Munich hubs and all the country’s other main destinations, has caused the cancelation of most flights.

The start of a spontaneous strike, organized today, March 9, by the Verdi trade union without any prior warnings, paralyzed the operation of Hamburg airport, Focus magazine writes.

Germany's Verdi union has brought forward the planned warning strike at Hamburg airport by one day, largely paralysing air traffic on Sunday.

Germany's Munich and Hamburg airports were hit by strikes by public sector union Verdi on Thursday and Friday, with airlines cancelling about 80% of flights in Munich.

The walkout, which reportedly took place with only about a half-hour advance notice, came before a broader series of preannounced strikes across 13 airports in Germany on Monday.

All flights to and from Hamburg Airport have been cancelled in response to a pay strike after services trade union verdi brought the action forward by a day without prior notice, an airport spokeswoman announced on Sunday.