Pilots at Lufthansa unit Germanwings to strike on Thursday

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - German pilots at Lufthansa's low-cost unit Germanwings are to go on strike on Thursday as a dispute over an early retirement scheme drags on.

The strike, the seventh at Lufthansa this year, will last for 12 hours from 1000 GMT (11.00 BST) until 2159 GMT on Thursday, affecting flights across Germany, the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) trade union said in a statement on Wednesday.

VC, representing about 5,400 Lufthansa pilots, wants the airline to maintain a scheme that allows pilots to retire early at the age of 55 and still receive up to 60 percent of their pay before regular pension payments start.

Management, under pressure to reduce costs to better compete with low-cost rivals and fast-growing airlines from the Middle East, has offered to keep the pension scheme for employees who started before this year but wants to increase the earliest possible retirement age for new recruits.

"Unfortunately, Lufthansa has not taken on VC's proposals for compromise and is continuing to stonewall," the union said, adding the airline's customers should be prepared for further strikes ahead.

A six-hour strike at Germanwings in August cost Lufthansa more than 10 million euros (7.97 million pounds).

Germanwings, which would normally operate around 450 flights on Thursday, said it would publish details on flight cancellations later on Wednesday.

"The escalation shows that it's not about a constructive solution for VC but rather about causing the most possible damage," a spokesman for Germanwings said.

Lufthansa rival Air France-KLM last week put the total cost of a two-week strike by its pilots at up to 500 million euros, enough to wipe more than a fifth off its estimated full-year core profit and sending its shares to a 13-month low.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan and Peter Maushagen; Editing by Kirsti Knolle)