Berlin - A pay strike by pilots at Lufthansa CityLine GmbH caused the cancellation Thursday of more than 300 flights from German airports to domestic and European destinations. The strike, which began at midnight and was scheduled to end at noon on Friday, hit all 15 airports used by the wholly-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa AG.
It follows similar brief strikes last month by pilots at CityLine and at Eurowings Luftverkehrs AG, of which Lufthansa owns 49 per cent, and a more damaging five-day strike by Lufthansa ground and cabin staff last week.
CityLine, which operates the less-frequented routes, said 360 of the 400 scheduled flights would be cancelled Thursday and their passengers transferred to rail and other flights.
Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg and Dusseldorf airports were worst affected by the strike, which is aimed at securing the same pay rates for CityLine pilots as for those at Lufthansa.
Lufthansa human resources head Stefan Lauer said the renewed strikes were angering clients and damaging the company.
The company has offered 740 CityLine pilots phased increases totalling 5.5 per cent over an 18-month contract, plus one-off payments of up to 7,000 euros (10,800 dollars).
Pilots union Cockpit has rejected the offer as unsuitable for discussion, but has not set a specific demand, noting that there have been no increases for CityLine pilots since January 2007.
The strikes at CityLine and Eurowings on July 7 and July 22 caused the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights.
A separate strike, by ground and cabin staff, called by services union Verdi at the end of July caused the cancellation of hundreds of European and intercontinental flights at Lufthansa by the time it ended Friday.
The airline continues to feel the knock-on effects caused by not carrying out the necessary maintenance checks.
Verdi accepted Lufthansa's offer of a phased pay rise of 7.4 per cent for 50,000 workers over 21 months, plus one-off payments, and is currently balloting its members on the deal.
Lufthansa's 3,500 pilots are currently threatening strike action over a demand for company-wide representation. Lufthansa regards the threatened action as illegal and has warned of court action.
