1,300 Lufthansa flights canceled due to 2-day crew strike

An estimated 180,000 passengers will be affected by 1,300 flight cancelations due to a strike by the cabin crew union on Thursday and Friday, Germany's largest airline Lufthansa said on Wednesday.

The company said in a statement that 2,300 of the 3,000 scheduled Lufthansa Group flights will still be operated on Thursday and 2,400 of 3,000 flights on Friday.

The Independent Flight Attendants Organization (Ufo) on Monday called on Lufthansa cabin crew to start the strike following Lufthansa's "ongoing refusal" to negotiate.

Previously, the union had asked its members not to show up for work on Oct. 20 at the airports of Frankfurt and Munich, after it demanded a pay raise to be applied retroactively from July 2019.

Lufthansa filed a temporary injunction to halt the strike but was rejected by a German court earlier on Wednesday.

Carsten Spohr, CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, has invited top representatives of the unions involved to a joint meeting later Wednesday.

The company also said it will activate a special flight plan and affected passengers can rebook their flight free of charge.