Pilots at Lufthansa have launched a two-day strike in a pay dispute, forcing the German airline to cancel nearly 900 flights on Wednesday alone.
The Cockpit union initially called members out on a 24-hour strike on Wednesday, but extended the strike to Thursday after Lufthansa tried and failed to have courts block the walkout.
The company cancelled 876 of the Lufthansa group’s planned 3,000 flights on Wednesday, including 51 long-haul services, and said about 100,000 passengers were affected.
It expressed “complete incomprehension” at Cockpit’s decision to extend the strike and said it would make preparations to deal with the Thursday walkout.
Other Lufthansa group airlines such as Eurowings, Swiss and Austrian Airlines are not affected by the strike.
The latest strike by Cockpit is the 14th since April 2014 in the long-running dispute. It comes as Lufthansa restructures to meet increasing competition from Gulf airlines and European budget carriers.
Cockpit said the airline has been posting “very good numbers for years” but its pilots have not had any consequent pay increases.
