Lufthansa pilots begin strike

Lufthansa pilots on Tuesday in Frankfurt, Germany walked off the job for the fifth time this year to commence strike over retirement benefits.
Lufthansa pilots’ union, Vereinigung Cockpit, said the industrial action would take place at Frankfurt airport, Germany’s largest.
It said travellers were expected to face fresh disruptions as long-haul flights would be affected.
Cockpit said the Airbus A380, A330, A340 and Boeing B747 would all be affected.
It said the airline has instituted a special flight plan to enable more than half of its planned intercontinental flights to take place.
“We are confident that we can fulfil out special flight plan,” it said.
Cockpit said the union was forced to resort to such measures as talks with the Lufthansa management were deadlocked and it had not been offered a compromise.
Tuesday’s strike action comes just as pilots at Air France ended a two-week strike over that airline’s cost-cutting plans.
That strike cost Air France more than $254 million, according to management.
dpa/NAN.