Pilots for German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG announced they would extend until tomorrow a strike that has already hit tens of thousands of passengers and seen hundreds of flights canceled in a dispute over a retirement scheme.
Just over half of the carrier’s scheduled 1,400 domestic and European flights to and from Frankfurt and Munich, Germany, were grounded on Wednesday, affecting about 80,000 passengers, a Lufthansa spokesman said.
The one-day stoppage initially planned was set to continue through yesterday, shifting to target long-haul and cargo services.
Pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit late on Wednesday announced that the strike would be also extended to today for short and medium-haul flights.
The walkout is the 12th bout of strike action to hit the German airline since April last year over management plans to change the pilots’ transitional pension arrangements.
Flights operated by Lufthansa’s subsidiaries Germanwings GmbH, Eurowings GmbH, Swiss International Airlines AG and Austrian Airlines were not affected.
A Lufthansa spokesman said the airline had sought to warn passengers of Wednesday’s strike ahead of time via text messages and e-mail.
The airline slammed the latest action as “incomprehensible” and said that it expected 42 of its 85 flights scheduled to leave Germany yesterday to be scrapped, but added that no cargo services were set to be canceled. Long-haul services are expected to resume as far as possible today, it said. It had earlier said that short and medium-haul traffic was also set to be back to normal from yesterday.
The company said it had called on other airlines within the Lufthansa group to help cover routes.
The dispute hinges on plans by Lufthansa to scrap an arrangement under which pilots can retire at 55 and receive up to 60 percent of their pay until they reach the statutory retirement age of 65.
Pilots are also concerned over Lufthansa’s aim to further develop its low-cost activities as it faces growing competition.
Lufthansa said it had made an improved offer to the pilots’ union in recent days, calling on Vereinigung Cockpit to immediately continue talks.
“Instead of working on sound solutions for the future, [Vereinigung Cockpit] is inflicting damage now on Lufthansa customers worldwide,” the airline said in a statement.
For its part, Vereinigung Cockpit accused Lufthansa of not having “moved a millimeter” despite its claims, and urged the airline’s bosses to negotiate seriously or accept an overall settlement.
In the previous round of strike action last month, Lufthansa’s low-cost subsidiary Germanwings was forced to scrap about 340 outbound flights from Germany.
Overall last year, the repeated strikes cost Lufthansa an estimated 232 million euros (US$245 million).
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