Pilots at German airline Lufthansa will go on strike on Wednesday in a long-running pay dispute, their labor union said on Monday, raising the prospects of hundreds of flight cancellations.
The strike, the 14th in the row between union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) and Lufthansa, will run for 24 hours from midnight and affect short-haul and long-haul Lufthansa flights departing from German airports, VC said in a statement.
Budget airlines Germanwings and Eurowings and other Lufthansa carriers, such as Austrian Airlines, SWISS and Brussels Airlines, are not affected, Lufthansa said.
Pay talks between Lufthansa and VC broke down this month. The two sides are trying to agree contracts dating back to 2012 and the union is calling for an average 3.7 percent a year pay increase for 5,400 pilots over a five-year period.
Lufthansa, which is trying to cut costs to cope with increased competition from low-cost carriers and leaner Gulf rivals, has offered 2.5 percent increases, which the pilots’ union has said equates to a virtual pay freeze.
