Lufthansa and its pilots crossed swords on Thursday over the airline's offer of arbitration talks on pay to head off a planned four-day strike that could cost it tens of millions of euros. Pilots agreed to arbitration but refused to call off the strike until the terms of mediation were clear.
Lufthansa responded by saying it would not discuss terms until the walkout planned for April 13-16 had been cancelled. Lufthansa this week proposed arbitration and threatened to claim damages from the pilots' union if it failed to swiftly call off the walkout. The pilots already staged a day-long strike in February that led to about 2,000 flight cancellations, stranded thousands of travellers around the world and cost Lufthansa about 48 million euros ($64.74 million) in lost revenues.