Lufthansa faces flight disruptions due to strikes by pilots and cabin crew

Major flight disruptions are likely on Thursday at Lufthansa Group's LHAG.DE core German airline, its freight arm Lufthansa Cargo and its short-haul carrier CityLine after two separate unions called for strikes by pilots and cabin crew.

German pilots' union VC (Vereinigung Cockpit) on Tuesday called a 24-hour strike on February 12 at Lufthansa Group's main German airline and Lufthansa Cargo in a dispute over pensions.

The union's members declared their readiness to strike in a ballot at the end of last September to pressure Lufthansa into granting more generous retirement benefits. Talks have since resumed but have been intermittent and without result.

The strike will affect all flights departing from German airports on February 12, VC said in a statement.

Separately, the UFO union of flight attendants called on its members at CityLine to strike on Thursday over the planned shutdown of its flight operations and "the employer’s continued refusal to negotiate a collective social plan".

All Lufthansa CityLine departures from Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Bremen, Stuttgart, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Berlin and Hanover will be affected, it said.

A spokesperson for Lufthansa said the announcements were "extremely short-notice" and "disproportionate" and would hit passengers hard.

"Sustainable solutions can only be found through dialogue; strikes must always remain a last resort," said the spokesperson Marc Baron. "We therefore call on the unions to resume talks with us. We are ready to do so at any time."

Baron said customers would be notified automatically if their flight was affected.

-Ilona Wissenbach and Olaf Brenner/Reuters