Lufthansa shares down as strike threat weighs
BERLIN (Reuters) - Shares in Lufthansa , Europe's largest airline by revenue, came under pressure on Monday after the pilots' union said strike action could be imminent after pay talks failed.
Vereinigung Cockpit, which represents most of Lufthansa's 5,400 pilots, has already staged a three-day walkout earlier this year, costing Lufthansa 60 million euros (47.74 million pounds) in the first half of this year.
The union said late on Friday it had decided in favour of further industrial action after talks failed over changes to an early retirement scheme.
Lufthansa shares were down 0.8 percent in early trading on Monday, the only share losing ground on Germany's blue-chip DAX index <.GDAXI> and one of the top fallers among European travel and leisure stocks <.SXTP>.
DZ Bank analyst Dirk Schlamp said a longer strike could threaten the 2014 earnings target at Lufthansa, which has already warned on profit this year. "Moreover, it would again burden company´s reputation," he added.
The airline warned on its profit in June, citing the effects of the pilot strikes, which put people off booking for several months, as one of the reasons.
Lufthansa said it is ready for further talks at any time, adding that the strikes in April did not resolve anything and that they would be unlikely to do so this time.
(Reporting by Victoria Bryan, editing by Louise Heavens)
