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The
876 cancellations, out of roughly 3,000 scheduled flights for
the day, will affect around 100,000 passengers, Lufthansa said
on Tuesday.
The strike, the 14th to hit the airline in its dispute with the
Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union, will run from midnight and
affect short-haul and long-haul flights departing from German
airports.
Flights by Lufthansa's other airlines including Germanwings,
Eurowings, Austrian Airlines, SWISS and Brussels Airlines, are
not affected by the pilots' strike, Lufthansa said.
However, budget airline Eurowings canceled more than 60 flights
on Tuesday due to a separate strike by some cabin crew in a pay
dispute between management and the Verdi labor union. The
walkout started at Duessseldorf and Hamburg airports at 5 am
local time (11 p.m. ET)) and is due to last until 8 pm.
Pay talks between Lufthansa and VC broke down this month, and
the pilots have rejected calls by Lufthansa for the dispute to
be taken to a mediator.
The union is calling for an average increase of 3.7 percent in
pay for 5,400 pilots over a five-year period dating back to
2012.
However, Lufthansa, which is trying to cut costs to cope with
increased competition from low-cost carriers and leaner Gulf
rivals, has offered a 2.5 percent increase over the six years
until 2019.
(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
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