Lufthansa cancels half of its long-haul flights as pilots call all-day strike

PanARMENIAN.Net - Lufthansa has cancelled around half of its long-haul flights planned for Tuesday, September 8 after its pilots' union called an all-day strike, according to BBC News.

The strike, the 13th in 18 months, will affect long-haul passenger and cargo flights out of Germany. However, Lufthansa said it would still be able to operate 90 out of about 170 planned long-haul flights.

Lufthansa has published a special flight schedule to keep passengers up to date with cancellations.

The pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) is in a long-running dispute over pay, retirement benefits and cost cuts. The union says it has offered concessions, including increasing the average retirement age to 60. But talks between VC and management broke down again last week.

Lufthansa is trying to cut costs as it battles to maintain market share through its budget airline Eurowings against low-cost rivals such as Ryanair.

VC wants to stop Lufthansa hiring pilots for Eurowings, which has an Austrian operating licence, on non-German contracts.