German budget airline Eurowings says it is being forced to make hundreds of flight cancellations from Monday to Wednesday due to the second pilots' strike within a few weeks.
Of the 400 flights planned for Monday, at least 230 are expected to take place, the Lufthansa subsidiary announced on Sunday. Eurowings expects to be able to operate more than half of its planned flight programme on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Vereinigung Cockpit union has called on Eurowings pilots to stop working from midnight (2200 GMT) on Monday up to and including Wednesday.
The union said the reason was an insufficient offer on the part of the employer regarding a collective agreement on better working conditions.
"This strike would not be necessary if Eurowings would negotiate with us on an equal footing," the union said.
Eurowings said the relief package, which offers 10 additional days off a year and three hours of reduced weekly working time, reached the limit of what was economically justifiable.
The fact that Eurowings expects to be able to operate more than half of its planned flights is partly due to the fact that Austrian subsidiary Eurowings Europe is not affected by the industrial action.
The airline Eurowings Discover, which operates from Frankfurt and Munich, is also not affected. In addition, the Lufthansa subsidiary is using aircraft from partner companies that also operate some of its other flights.
The flight schedules for Tuesday and Wednesday would be published as soon as it was clear how many pilots report for flight duty despite the strike call, Eurowings said.
Passengers were asked to continuously check the status of their flight via the website or the Eurowings customer app.
During the first strike on October 6, about half of all flights were cancelled. Tens of thousands of passengers had to switch to other flights or modes of transport, or postpone their journey.
