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BERLIN (Reuters) - Pilots locked in a row with Lufthansa over an early retirement scheme announced further strike action at the German airline, this time affecting travel from Europe's third largest airport in Frankfurt.
Union Vereinigung Cockpit said the strike would run from 1500-2100 GMT on Friday and would affect short-haul and medium-haul Lufthansa flights leaving Frankfurt airport.
Pilots already went on strike at Lufthansa's low-cost unit Germanwings last week, costing the airline more than 10 million euros ($13 million).
The pilots, who also carried out a three-day nationwide strike in April over the same issue, want Lufthansa to maintain a 50-year old scheme that allows pilots to take early retirement at 55 and still receive up to 60 percent of their pay.
Lufthansa, which had tried to scrap the scheme entirely, wants to increase the average age at which pilots retire to 61, to reflect longer life expectancies and a recent ruling that allows pilots to stay in the job until the age of 65.
The airline said it was working on a flight schedule that would be published shortly.
Lufthansa Chief Executive Carsten Spohr had earlier this week said in a presentation to management that Lufthansa had the best pilots. "But we have to be able to afford them in the long term," he said.
DZ Bank said the announcement was not a surprise but was negative. "(The) full year earnings target is becoming more difficult to achieve," analyst Dirk Schlamp said.
(Reporting by Victoria Bryan and Peter Maushagen; Editing by Maria Sheahan)