Walkouts plague Eurowings, CityLine
FRANKFURT, Germany—The airline pilots' union Cockpit on Tuesday announced another series of walkouts at Lufthansa AG subsidiary airlines Eurowings and Lufthansa CityLine.
In a statement, the union said it had called on more than 1,000 members at the two airlines to strike from noon (1000 GMT) Tuesday through midnight Wednesday.
Lufthansa said the strikes would force the company to cancel almost 1,000 flights -- 465 Tuesday and another 525 on Wednesday, affecting thousands of passengers. Lufthansa long-haul flights were not affected.
The union has been holding strikes at the airlines amid a pay dispute. The last walkout led to more than 600 flights in Germany being canceled.
The union said it called the strikes because Lufthansa, Germany's biggest airline, had not delivered what it called a negotiable offer in the talks, which have been ongoing for months.
Lufthansa's last offer to CityLine pilots was a 5.5 percent pay increase, plus a one-time bonus payment. Its last offer for Eurowings pilots was a 6.5 percent increase, along with a one-time bonus. The Cockpit union would not say what it was seeking.
The strikes were affecting airports including Frankfurt -- continental Europe's second largest after Paris Charles de Gaulle -- along with Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Berlin, Nuremberg, Duesseldorf and Hannover.
Lufthansa spokesman Michael Lamberti said the strike was "not comprehensible" and that Lufthansa had presented the union a good offer. "We're trying to be as accommodating as possible," he said of the talks.
Lufthansa said domestic tickets could be used on Deutsche Bahn, the German rail carrier and that it was trying to put as many affected passengers as possible on other flights within the group's airlines.
Lufthansa has also been plagued by strikes of service union ver.di, which represents ground handlers and cabin staff.
On July 1, about 4,500 ver.di union members walked off their jobs, disrupting flights to and from airports across Germany in an effort to win more pay, union organizers said.
The ver.di union was seeking a 9.8 percent pay hike for Lufthansa's roughly 60,000 ground and cabin personnel, while the airline has offered a total of 5.5 percent in graded increases over the year.
On July 10, the fourth round of those wage talks collapsed and ver.di's members are voting whether to strike. A decision is expected Friday and strikes could ensure as early as Saturday, pending the vote tally.
Shares of Lufthansa fell 3.3 percent to 14.73 euros ($23.42).
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