Lufthansa
said a pilots' strike later on Friday will mean cancelling 200 flights and hit
the travel plans of about 250,000 passengers.
The
German airline has been locked in a dispute with the Vereinigung Cockpit union
over an early retirement scheme.
Lufthansa
said short-haul and medium-haul flights leaving Frankfurt airport, Europe's
third largest, will be hit.
Pilots
at Lufthansa's budget carrier Germanwings went on strike last week over early
retirement.
Friday's
strike will involve a six-hour stoppage from
1500 GMT.
"We
will continue to strike until Lufthansa brings an end to the confrontational
way in which they deal with staff," union official Joerg Handwerg told the
Reuters news agency.
The
pilots, who staged a three-day nationwide strike in April over the same issue,
want Lufthansa to retain a 50-year old scheme that allows pilots to take early
retirement at 55 and still receive up to 60% of their pay.
The
carrier, which had wanted to scrap the scheme entirely, wants to increase the
average age at which its pilots retire to 61.
Lufthansa
chief executive Carsten Spohr has said changes are necessary to keep the
airline's costs down.
Although
Friday's strike will not cause as much disruption as April's industrial action,
it coincides with the end of the summer holiday period in some German states.
Last
Friday's Germanwings strike meant the cancellation of more than 100 flights,
hitting the plans of about 15,000 passengers.
BBC
Business
No comments:
Post a Comment