German airline Lufthansa has cancelled around 750 flights, as pilots stage fresh strike action in a bitter dispute over early retirement.
Just over half of the carrier's scheduled 1400 domestic and European flights to and from Frankfurt and Munich were grounded, affecting around 80,000 passengers, a Lufthansa spokesman said on Wednesday.
The strike was set to continue throughout Thursday when it will shift to target long-haul and cargo services.
The two-day walkout is the twelfth bout of strike action to hit the German airline since last April over management plans to change the pilots' transitional pension arrangements.
Flights operated by Lufthansa's subsidiaries Germanwings, Eurowings, Swiss and Austrian Airlines were not affected.
A Lufthansa spokesman said the airline had sought to warn passengers of Wednesday's strike ahead of time via text messages sent by mobile phone and email.
Pilots' union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) announced late on the eve of the walkout that the initially planned one-day stoppage would be extended by another day.
Lufthansa slammed the latest action as "incomprehensible" and said that it expected 42 of its 85 flights scheduled to leave Germany Thursday to be scrapped but that no cargo services were set to be cancelled.
Long-haul services are expected to resume as far as possible on Friday, the airline said, adding that, similarly, short- and medium-haul traffic was set to be back to normal from Thursday.
The company said it had called on other airlines within the Lufthansa group to help to cover routes.
The dispute hinges on plans by Lufthansa to scrap an arrangement under which pilots can retire at 55 and receive up to 60 per cent of their pay until they reach the statutory retirement age of 65.
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