Lufthansa strike to hit 100,000 passengers with almost 900 flights cancelled

German flag carrier to ground long-haul and short-haul flights tomorrow as pay talks breakdown leading to strike action by pilots, while a separate strike has grounded Eurowings flights.

Lufthansa planes parked on the tarmac at Frankfurt airport. A strike by pilots will ground at least 876 flights on Wednesday, the German carrier said today. Johannes Eisele / Reuters

Lufthansa said it was cancelling more than a third of its flights on Wednesday due to a 24-hour strike by its pilots, the latest disruption to its operations to be caused by a long-running pay dispute.

The 876 cancellations, out of about 3,000 scheduled flights for the day, will affect around 100,000 passengers, Lufthansa said on Tuesday.

The strike, the 14th to hit the airline in its dispute with the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union, will run from midnight and affect short-haul and long-haul flights departing from German airports.

Flights by Lufthansa’s other airlines including Germanwings, Eurowings, Austrian Airlines, SWISS and Brussels Airlines, are not affected by the pilots’ strike, Lufthansa said.

However, the budget airline Eurowings cancelled more than 60 flights on Tuesday due to a separate strike by some cabin crew in a pay dispute between management and the Verdi labour union. The walkout started at Duessseldorf and Hamburg airports at 5am local time and is due to last until 8pm.

Pay talks between Lufthansa and VC broke down this month and the pilots have rejected calls by Lufthansa for the dispute to be taken to a mediator.

The union is calling for an average increase of 3.7 per cent in pay for 5,400 pilots over a five-year period dating back to 2012.

However, Lufthansa, which is trying to cut costs to cope with increased competition from low-cost carriers and leaner Gulf rivals, has offered a 2.5 per cent increase over the six years until 2019.

* Reuters

Follow The National's Business section on Twitter