Pilot strike grounds half of long-haul flights at Lufthansa
Friday, 5 December 2014 00:49
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FRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters): Pilots at Lufthansa started their second strike this week on Thursday, grounding about half of scheduled long-haul flights at the German flagship carrier, in a drawn-out dispute over an early retirement scheme.
Pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), representing about 5,400 Lufthansa pilots, is fighting to retain a scheme allowing pilots to retire at age 55 and still receive up to 60% of their pay before regular pension payments start at 65.
Lufthansa says it will not accept a demand that new pilots, as well as those already with the company, should be able to retire at 55.
It offered VC mediation on Wednesday in hopes of resolving the dispute in time for the busy Christmas holiday season. VC board member Joerg Handwerg said VC would discuss the offer at a meeting of its pay committee at the start of next week.
The Germany-wide strike, the tenth this year, started at 02:00 GMT on Thursday and will run until 22:59 GMT. It forced Lufthansa to cancel 37 long-haul flights and six cargo flights.
Domestic and European routes, as well as flights of Lufthansa units Germanwings, Austrian Airlines and SWISS were not affected.
Pilot strikes have wiped 160 million euros ($200 million) off the airline’s operating profit this year, not including this week’s two walkouts.
Chief Executive Carsten Spohr said on Wednesday he saw no reason yet to change the group’s target for operating profit of one billion euros in 2014 but did not give an estimate for the cost of this week’s strikes.
