American Marconi Wireless News - Lufthansa pilots strike as cabin crew call further stoppage

On Monday, half of all long-distance flights and two-thirds of short-haul services were cancelled at Lufthansa, the group's main airline, on the first day of the two-day industrial action by the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) pilots' union, the company said.

The VC pilots' union said Monday afternoon that over 700 flights had been cancelled, adding in a statement that it was "ready for discussions at any time" so long as "realistic offers" were on the table.

Meanwhile cabin crew at Lufthansa also said on Monday that they plan to hit the airline with their own further two-day strike on Wednesday and Thursday.

The cabin crew stoppage will affect "all Lufthansa group departures from Frankfurt and Munich airports" for the whole of Wednesday and Thursday, according to the UFO union.

The two airports are the major hubs for the German airline.

Departures from Lufthansa's Cityline subsidiaries at seven further airports are also part of the cabin crew strike call.

UFO cabin crew also walked out on Friday at both Lufthansa and CityLine in a dispute over working conditions.

The union's top negotiator, Harry Jaeger, told AFP on Friday that the strike forced the aviation giant to cancel about 90 percent of flights by those two brands.

Lufthansa described Monday's strike call "distressing", saying it showed that the cabin crew union's members are "completely indifferent to the fate of our passengers and the future of Lufthansa".

But Jaeger said that the strike on Friday has already demonstrated "how determined they are to stand up for their working conditions".

UFO contends that there has not been enough progress made on issues such as "avoiding overwork" and lengthening redundancy notice periods.

Pilots at Lufthansa have also gone on strike multiple times this year as part of their disputes with the company.

The most recent strike by pilots took place in mid-March, which grounded about half of the airline's flights.

On February 12 almost 800 Lufthansa flights were cancelled, affecting around 100,000 passengers, when pilots and cabin crew staged a strike in a pensions dispute.

On Saturday, a Lufthansa spokesman had called the demands from the pilots' union for higher pay and pensions "absurd and unfeasible".

But the VC union's president, Andreas Pinheiro, said the airline had "shown no tangible willingness to find a solution during several rounds of negotiations".

"Although we deliberately refrained from any strike action during the Easter holidays, no serious proposal was made," he added.

S.Gregor--AMWN