Lufthansa cancels nearly 900 flights over pilot strike

Hessen: Germany`s flagship carrier Lufthansa said it would cancel nearly 900 flights on Wednesday because of a strike by pilots, causing travel disruptions for tens of thousands of passengers in the latest escalation of a long-simmering pay dispute.

The 24-hour stoppage, called by the pilots` union Vereinigung Cockpit, will start at midnight and affect Lufthansa flights at airports across Germany.

Out of the roughly 3,000 planned short- and long-haul flights, 876 will be cancelled due to the strike, "affecting some 100,000 passengers", Lufthansa said in a statement Tuesday.

It will be the union`s 14th strike since April 2014.

Meanwhile a separate walkout by cabin crew at Lufthansa`s low-cost airline Eurowings led to the cancellation of more than 60 flights at airports in Hamburg and Duesseldorf on Tuesday.

The industrial action was called by Germany`s biggest services union Verdi in a row over pay and working conditions.

The stoppage began at 0400 GMT and was due to end at 1900 GMT.

The Lufthansa pilots going on strike Wednesday are demanding a pay rise of an average of 3.66 percent per year, retroactive for the past five years.

The union says pilots have endured a wage freeze over that time and suffered a "significant loss of purchasing power" due to inflation, while Lufthansa has made billions in profits.

It had offered a 2.5 percent wage hike.