FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Pilots at the budget unit of Lufthansa (DE:LHAG) announced plans for a walkout on Thursday, ratcheting up the pressure on the airline ahead of a fresh round of talks over an early retirement scheme.
Like their colleagues in other Lufthansa units, the pilots at low-cost carrier Germanwings want the management to maintain the scheme that allows them to retire early at 55 and still keep some of their pay until they reach the age at which state pension payments start.
Lufthansa and pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) are due to return to the negotiating table later on Thursday. If talks fail to lead to an agreement, pilots at Germanwings will go on strike for six hours from 0400 GMT on Friday, VC said.
About 700 of the Lufthansa group's over 9,000 pilots work at Germanwings.
A spokeswoman for Lufthansa said the airline was looking into what impact Thursday's announcement would have on the talks with the union. She said it was not yet clear how many flights would be affected.
News of the strike comes as travelers in Germany also face a possible walkout by employees at rail operator Deutsche Bahn, though VC has said it was in touch with the rail union to avoid entirely shutting down domestic transportation routes.
In April, pilots at Lufthansa held a three-day strike which grounded almost all flights and wiped off 60 million euros ($79 million) from the airline's first half profits.
Lufthansa has been overhauling its business to boost group operating profit to 2.3 billion euros ($3 billion) by 2015, up by 1.5 billion compared with 2011, and compete with budget airlines and Gulf carriers.
It is in the process of transferring much of its European short-haul business to Germanwings, except for flights to and from its hubs in Frankfurt and Munich.
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(Reporting by Maria Sheahan and Hans Seidenstuecker; Editing by Miral Fahmy)