Air France pilots strike

The Paris airport authority reported that only half of Air France's flights are operating out of the French capital's two major airports on Monday, causing major travel disruptments.

In a statement, Air France management urged "customers who have booked a flight between September 15 and 22 to delay their trip, change their ticket free of charge or claim a refund."

The company said it had sent more than 60,000 text messages to its passengers to warn them of the disruption, while laying on 7,000 extra ground crew to assist those stranded after their flights were cancelled.

While France's flagship airline spoke of around half of its flights being canceled, the main pilots union, SNPL, warned that the strike could force the cancellation of as many as 80 percent of flights as the work stoppage intensifies over the coming days.

The union called its members off the job on Monday to protest against a plan announced by KLM-France last week, which it hopes will save the company one billion euros ($1.3 billion) over the next few years. As part of the plan much of Air France's European operations - and jobs - are to be transferred to budget air carrier Transavia.

"This is about a point of principle. We're not even talking about a rise in wages," the head of the union, Jean-Louis Barbe said.

Lufthansa pilots to strike on Tuesday

Meanwhile, a union representing pilots at the German flagship carrier, Lufthansa, has announced that they are to walk of the job on Tuesday.

A statement issued by the union, Vereinigung Cockpit, said long-haul flights operating out of Germany's biggest hub, Frankfurt, would be affected by the eight-hour-long strike, which is to begin at 9 a.m. local time (0700 UTC) on Tuesday.

This is to be the fourth round of recent strikes called by the union to back up its demand that Lufthansa maintain an early retirement scheme for pilots, which the airline is seeking to eliminate in a drive to cut costs.

pfd/bw (AP, AFP, dpa)