Lufthansa Pilots to Strike for Three Days This Week

Bad news for Germany's skies: The country's flag-carrier Lufthansa is expected to cancel 3,800 flights this week due to a pilots' strike over pay and working conditions, the BBC and other sources are reporting.

The airline said 425,000 passengers would be affected by the shut-down, due to take place on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, which would make the strike the longest in the airline's history. In a statement, the airline estimated that there would only be "around 500 short- and long-haul flights by Lufthansa and Germanwings" during the three-day walkout. 

Lufthansa also said that it would inform passengers via text message or email about the flight changes, and that the impact on profits would be "in the range of tens of millions of euros," according to the article.

Passengers may not need to cancel their trips just yet, however: Pilots of Lufthansa Group airlines Swiss International Air Lines, Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, Lufthansa CityLine and Air Dolomiti are not participating in the strike, and would "use larger planes on routes from and to Germany in order to bring as many rebooked Lufthansa passengers as possible to their destinations."

RELATED: Frankfurt Airport Partially Shuts Down Due to Strike

Earlier this year, Frankfurt Airport, Europe's second busiest, shut down on the afternoon of February 21 after thousands of security personnel walked off the job to press demands for higher wages.

At the time, Lufthansa condemned the strike as "completely unacceptable," as the AP reported at the time, and urged authorities to prevent such strikes in future, warning that it may not be able to guarantee regular operations in Germany if the strategy becomes the norm among the many unions involved in the air travel business.