Lufthansa's leisure airline Discover hit by 48-hour pilots' strike

Some flights at Lufthansa's leisure subsidiary Discover Airlines were disrupted on Sunday as pilots walked off the job for 48 hours over pay and working conditions.

Discover Airlines, which until last September was known as Eurowings Discover, operates short, medium and long-haul service to popular tourist destinations using 24 aircraft.

The airline said that 90% of its scheduled short and medium-haul flights from Frankfurt were expected to depart on time during the strike. But only around 30% of long-haul flights were to be operated.

Discover flights from Frankfurt to Spain, Mexico and the United States were cancelled or delayed, for instance, on Sunday. But routes out of Munich saw fewer problems as parent company Lufthansa took over operations of those flights.

The strike began on Sunday and was set to last through Monday evening.

This is the third labour action by Discover pilots after a five-hour strike shortly before Christmas and a 24-hour work stoppage last month.

The Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union is trying to forge a first collective agreement with the airline, which was founded two and a half years ago and is based in Frankfurt and Munich.

The union considers the negotiations with the employer to have stalled. The renewed strike is being used as a last resort in view of the lack of progress in the talks, it said.

The Lufthansa Group, which operates a network of airlines, is in the midst of negotiating labour contracts with employees at several of its companies. Flight attendants and ground staff have already threatened to go on strike at main airline Lufthansa.