Lufthansa forced to cancel more flights

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- German-based airline Lufthansa canceled 360 flights with its regional carrier Thursday because of pilot walkouts, the airline said.

The strike action at City Line began at midnight (6 p.m. ET) Wednesday and is scheduled to last for 36 hours.

Amelie Lorenz, a spokeswoman for Lufthansa, said all of the canceled flights were either domestic or short-haul in Europe. She said 360 of 400 City Line flights would be canceled Thursday and that the airline does not yet know how many flights it would have to cancel Friday.

The Cockpit union said the strike would affect air travel at 15 German airports including Munich, Hamburg, Berlin Tegel, and Frankfurt. The union apologized to Lufthansa customers for any inconvenience caused by the strike.

Cockpit said the dispute was about a new pay agreement for the 740 City Line pilots. Negotiations between the union and Lufthansa had recently failed.

Lorenz said the airline was offering pilots 3 percent more pay starting from July 1, 2008, and then another 2.5-percent pay raise starting January 1, 2009.

"In all, that would be a pay rise of 5.5 percent," she said. "We cannot understand why the pilots have now decided to strike."

The airline said it also offered one-time payments of 5,000 euros ($7,734) for first officers and 7,000 euros ($10,828) for flight captains.

The walkout comes a week after a separate strike by Lufthansa ground staff that forced the airline to cancel dozens of flights, including several to long-haul international destinations. The strike by technical and catering staff ended last Friday when the two sides reached a pay deal.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen contributed to this report.

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