Lufthansa expects strikes to cancel more than 1,000 flights Monday

Lufthansa, the German carrier that has suffered a spate of walkouts this year, expects more than 1,000 flights to be canceled when a pilots’ strike resumes Monday.

Pilots will strike beginning Monday afternoon and all of Tuesday, the Vereinigung Cockpit union said in a statement. Lufthansa’s budget airline Germanwings canceled 46 flights last week.

The action is “not understandable and in no way proportionate,” Lufthansa said in a statement. Long-haul flights won’t be affected and the carrier will keep customers informed via its website, it said.

Lufthansa is canceling 1,450 flights, affecting about 200,000 passengers, because of the strike, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The airline has been forced to cancel thousands of flights this year, including 3,800 departures over three days in April, as it grapples with the longest series of strikes in its history. In June, the company cut its earnings forecasts for this year and 2015 as pilots resisted cost cuts and increased capacity hurt prices.

The pilots union wants the carrier to reinstate benefits withdrawn last year that were paid to pilots retiring before they receive the state pension. Lufthansa wants to raise the retirement age to 60 years from 55.

“Lufthansa insists on its maximum demands and has shown absolutely no willingness to compromise,” Joerg Handwerk, a spokesman for the union, said Sunday. Pilots are ready to stage further walkouts, he said.

Train travel also is being disrupted in Germany by strike action that is set to finish Monday.