Lufthansa has cancelled 134 flights due to a pilot strike at Frankfurt Airport.
The pilot union, Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), announced the strike will take place from 5pm until 11pm (4pm to 10pm UK time) tonight, due to an ongoing row.
The action will affect short-haul and medium-haul Lufthansa flights leaving Frankfurt airport and could affect around 25,000 passengers, the airline said.
Lufthansa said the strike would hit business travellers and those going away for the weekend. It coincides with the end of the summer holidays in various German states.
The row is over an early retirement scheme and is the second within a week at the airline, reports Reuters.
Pilots want Lufthansa to maintain a 50-year old scheme that allows pilots to take early retirement at 55 and still receive up to 60 percent of their pay.
Lufthansa, which had tried to scrap the scheme entirely, wants to increase the average age at which its pilots retire to 61, to reflect longer life expectancies and a recent European Union ruling that allows pilots to stay in the job until the age of 65.
The union said yesterday that more strikes could come at any time after today’s action.
Lufthansa said on its website that it regretted any inconvenience adding that it would do its utmost to minimise the impact on passengers.
