Pilots at Eurowings, a subsidiary of Lufthansa, staged a half-day strike in Germany on Friday, grounding 72 scheduled flights, in a protest at planned job cuts, DPA reported.
The low-cost unit employs 305 pilots. Their union, the Cockpit Association, ordered them to stop work till 1 pm (1200 GMT).
The union says Lufthansa is planning to reduce the Eurowings fleet from 34 to 15 planes, meaning a loss of 180 pilot jobs. It is demanding large redundancy payments from the airline. Eurowings flies high-traffic routes within Europe.
"They haven't made any reasonable offer, so we are going on strike," said union spokesman Markus Germann.
Earlier this week, a German labour court scotched plans for a strike at another German carrier, Air Berlin. Cockpit had sought a stoppage after management and unions failed to reach an agreement in salary negotiations.