Lufthansa pilots suspend strike

Lufthansa and its pilots are set to return to the cockpit today after the German airline and a key union agreed to halt a four-day strik.

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Lufthansa and its pilots are set to return to the cockpit today after the German airline and a key union agreed to halt a four-day strike that disrupted travellers and was poised to go on through Friday. The four-day walkout ended less than 24 hours after it began after two hours in a Frankfurt labour court that saw both sides agree to suspend the strike and hold talks, they said on Monday night. Lufthansa confirmed the decision and said the walkout would end at midnight (11pm GMT).

"The parties agreed in front of the court that the strike is to be suspended through the 8th of March," Lufthansa spokesman Andreas Bartels said, adding the 4,000 pilots will return to work today though it would take some time for normal operations to resume. "They're going to go back to work tomorrow," he said. Some 10,000 Lufthansa and Germanwings passengers were upended by the strike. Cockpit union spokesman Joerge Handwerg said the strike was suspended until March 9, pending the resumption of talks between both sides.

British Airways PLC, meanwhile, faced a renewed threat of cabin crew strikes, after the Unite union announced that most of its members had voted in favor of a walkout. And Eurostar - the main train alternative to planes between Paris, Brussels and London - experienced yet another embarrassing train failure. A Eurostar Paris-to London train inexplicably broke down in southern England late on Sunday, plunging more than 700 passengers into darkness and forcing them to climb down ladders onto the track to a replacement train.

*AP