Lufthansa cancels 800 flights due to strike

Berlin: More than 800 international flights, including 58 long-haul flights, operated by German airline Lufthansa are cancelled on Tuesday as a consequence of industrial action, the trade union ver.di announced on Monday.

The action will affect 90,000 travellers. The airline has offered to rebook customers' flights for free, or the use of bus or train services instead. The airline plans to return to its regular flight schedule by Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The "warning strike" will affect major airports including Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne and Bremen where ver.di represents workers in ground handling services and airport fire departments employed by the public sector. Ver.di is demanding a six per cent pay rise for government employees in ongoing collective wage negotiations.

Lufthansa complained on Monday that its customers would bear the brunt of the industrial action although the company was itself not a party to the collective wage negotiations which had prompted the warning strikes.