Lufthansa management is appealing to its pilots' unions to return to the negotiating table after the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) organisation reportedly rejected calls for mediation in a long-running dispute over pensions.

A spokesman for the airline said it would have been possible to solve the conflict with the aid of an arbitrator and appealed to the VC to take up the negotiations once again.

It is not yet known if further strikes will actually be called.

Hopes had risen in early July that agreement was being reached after pilots agreed not to hold further strikes until August, while arbitration talks continued, and called off their strikes in the interim.

In a separate dispute, the UFO cabin crews’ union agreed to meet Lufthansa in mid-July and said that there would be no strike action until then. UFO had also been threatening to hold a one-day strike on July 1 in a row over pay and pensions.