Berlin, September 9 (RHC)-- Lufthansa has axed 1,000 flights on the second-day of a two-day strike by the German flag carrier’s pilots staged amid a long-drawn-out labor dispute with the management.

Vereinigung Cockpit (VC), as the pilots’ union is named, launched the industrial action targeting the airline’s long-haul flights on Tuesday when 90 flights were canceled as a result of the strike. It extended the protest action to medium- and short-haul flights on Wednesday. Overall, the walkout has affected some 140,000 travelers. The VC has for long been in talks with the company’s CEO, Carsten Spohr, presenting the airline with concessions in order to persuade it to abandon its cost-cutting plans.

The union has proposed that the carrier to shed costs by raising the average retirement age among other means instead of following up its plans of changing retirement benefits and lowering costs via expansion of Eurowings, Lufthansa's budget subsidiary. The company, however, has turned down the proposals.

Protesting the carrier’s plans, Lufthansa pilots have walked off the job 12 times since April last year. The strike action has cost the company more than USD 338.4 million (EUR 300 million).