Lufthansa scraps 900 flights as pilots extend strike

Lufthansa said Wednesday it had cancelled 912 flights for Thursday, grounding 115,000 more passengers as pilots extend their strike. The airline had already scrapped nearly 900 flights that affected 100,000 passengers on Wednesday after pilots staged a walkout in a row over pay and working conditions. Late Wednesday, pilots' union Cockpit called for the strike - its 14th since April 2014 - to continue through Friday, urging short-haul flight pilots to stay off work. Meanwhile a separate walkout by cabin crew at Lufthansa's low-cost airline Eurowings led to the cancellation of more than 60 flights at airports in Hamburg and Duesseldorf on Tuesday. The Lufthansa pilots going on strike are demanding a pay rise of an average of 3.66% per year, retroactive for the past five years. Their union says pilots have endured a wage freeze over that time and suffered a "significant loss of purchasing power" due to inflation, while Lufthansa has made billions in profits. It had offered a 2.5% wage hike. Lufthansa urged the Cockpit union to work towards a resolution rather than escalate the problem. "Cockpit's demand for a pay rise ... goes far above what other groups of employees have received. It is incomprehensible why the union is seeking the highest salary increase for the best paid group of employees," said Bettina Volkens, Lufthansa's human resources chief.<br/>