Lufthansa pilots extend strike; 1,400 flights grounded

FRANKFURT (AFP) – Pilots for German airline Lufthansa announced they would extend until Friday a strike that has already hit tens of thousands of passengers and seen hundreds of flights cancelled in a dispute over a retirement scheme.

Just over half of the carrier's scheduled 1,400 domestic and European flights to and from Frankfurt and Munich were grounded Wednesday, affecting around 80,000 passengers, a Lufthansa spokesman said.

The one- day stoppage initially planned is set to continue throughout Thursday, when it will shift to target long-haul and cargo services.

Pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) announced late Wednesday that it would be also extended to Friday for short- and medium-haul flights.

The walkout is the twelfth bout of strike action to hit the German airline since last April over management plans to change the pilots' transitional pen- sion arrangements.

Flights operated by Lufthansa's subsidiaries Germanwings, Eurowings, Swiss and Austrian Airlines were not affected.

A Lufthansa spokesman said the airline had sought to warn passengers of Wednesday's strike ahead of time via text messages and email.

At Munich and Frankfurt airports, there were no reports of large groups of stranded passengers Wednesday, national news agency DPA said.

Lufthansa slammed the latest action as ''incomprehensible'' and said that it expected 42 of its 85 flights scheduled to leave Germany Thursday to be scrapped, but added that no cargo services were set to be cancelled.

Long-haul services are expected to resume as far as possible on Friday, the airline said.

It had earlier said that short- and medium-haul traffic was also set to be back to normal from Thursday.