Lufthansa strike grounds more than 100K passengers

German airline Lufthansa on Monday canceled more than 900 flights, grounding 113,000 passengers, as a strike by flight crew members over retirement benefits continued for a third day.

The union representing the company’s flight attendants said it would continue the strike through the end of the week, with shifting targets.

On Tuesday only long-haul international flights will be affected at Lufthansa's Munich and Frankfurt hubs, the DPA news agency reported. In Düsseldorf, all flights — long distance and shorter ones within Germany and Europe — will be stuck.

Nicoley Baublies, the chairman of the union, UFO, said Sunday that passengers should be aware that some flights could be canceled through Nov. 13. "Our guests need to take into account that their flight is canceled with Lufthansa until Friday," he said, according to German newspaper Der Spiegel.

Lufthansa said in a statement on Sunday that it would continue negotiations, though it has already agreed "to all the union's demands."

The UFO wants to secure transition payments for its 19,000 members if they retire early as part of its contract dispute with the airline. The payments would allow employees who choose to retire before Germany’s pension eligibility age of 65 to still receive benefits subsidized by the airline.

Lufthansa is trying to cut costs in the face of competition from European budget airlines and Gulf carriers. The company has also been locked in a dispute with a union representing pilots.

In its statement Sunday, Lufthansa said its crew pension plans are already "far higher" on average than other German companies'.

The strike has so far not affected Lufthansa’s subsidiary companies — Eurowings, Germanwings, Swiss and Austrian Airlines.

Al Jazeera and wire services