Lufthansa pilots' strike cancels flights to and from Germany

Due to a strike called by the German pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) against Lufthansa Airlines and Lufthansa Cargo — the 13th in 18 months — the carrier has canceled 84 of today’s 170 scheduled long-haul flights to and from Germany.

Some intercontinental flights that were scheduled to fly into Frankfurt, Munich and Dusseldorf on Monday were also canceled “to ensure that flight operations can resume as smoothly as possible” after the strike, Lufthansa said in a statement.

The airline will operate all seven of its cargo flights scheduled for today, but several hundred of the 1,350 short- and medium-haul flights scheduled to and from Germany on Wednesday will be canceled due to a 24-hour extension of the strike action, Reuters reports.

Lufthansa and the pilots’ union are at odds over a variety of issues, including pay, pensions and cost cuts. According to AP, a key dispute is Lufthansa’s plan to cut payments for pilots wanting to retire early, a move the union opposes.

In a statement released Monday, the union says that an offer it made to Lufthansa that included “vast concessions on a variety of issues” representing savings of over 500 million euros (more than $560 million) had been rejected and that a counter-proposal submitted by the carrier over the weekend to the union was, at first glance, “promising,” but on closer inspection, “insubstantial.”

On its website, Lufthansa says that it has published a special flight schedule for the strike days, that it “regrets any inconveniences caused” and that it will do its best to keep possible disruptions to a minimum. Customers with flights canceled because of the strike are being allowed to rebook or cancel their reservations with no penalties.

Harriet Baskas is a Seattle-based airports and aviation writer and Paste BN Travel's "At the Airport" columnist. She occasionally contributes to Ben Mutzabaugh's Today in the Sky blog. Follow her at twitter.com/hbaskas.