Lufthansa’s long-haul flights are being targeted by an all-day strike by pilots tomorrow (Tuesday).
Pilots flying Airbus A330s, A340s and A380s and Boeing 747s, as well as all cargo flights, will strike from 6am until 9.59pm local time, the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union said.
The action, the 13th walkout in 18 months, would affect all long-haul passenger flights and all cargo flights out of Germany.
Lufthansa said it had offered talks over the weekend.
The airline said it was confident of helping passengers to complete “a majority” of long-haul flights planned for Tuesday, either booking them onto other group airlines or different carriers.
Lufthansa chief executive, Carsten Spohr, said last week he was ready to suffer more strikes to force through changes he says will help Lufthansa compete with low-cost carriers in Europe and Gulf rivals on long-haul routes.
The walkouts have already wiped an estimated €300 million from operating profits.
VC wants Lufthansa to halt the process of employing staff on non-German contracts for the expansion of its budget Eurowings division, which has an Austrian operating licence.
In an interview with Reuters on Friday, Spohr said over 1,000 pilots from within the Lufthansa group and outside had applied for jobs at the unit.
“To create an airline’s operating certificate in another country is something the other low-cost carriers do and we copied that model for our low-cost operation,” he said.