German carrier Lufthansa cancelled 800 commercial, passenger and freight air connections today, due to a pilot strike announced yesterday. The inconveniences mainly affected the airport hubs of Munich and Frankfurt. According to estimates, the protest will have an impact on over 130,000 passengers, as announced by the Cologne airline itself.

The tussle between the company and the Vereinigung Cockpit union, which represents the pilots, therefore continues. The reason for the protest is in the request for a reasonable salary increase which would have been rejected by the management of the company. The company, in fact, offered a one-off increase of 900 Euros (+ 5%) for senior pilots -the unions had asked for +5.5% - and +18% for those who start the profession.

Meanwhile, on 4 August, Lufthansa reached a union agreement involving 20,000 of its ground operators. According to the airline, the union's demand would have led to an increase in costs for pilots of 900 million euros from the current 2.2 billion euros over the next two years.