A strike by about 4,000 pilots at German airline Lufthansa has been suspended - with union officials agreeing to resume negotiations¹.

德国汉莎航空公司4000名飞行员举行的罢工活动暂时停止——工会主席同意重新开始谈判。

'If we crash, the whole company goes down'

The action - which had been scheduled to run for four days - was called off after less than 24 hours of delays and cancellations for passengers.

The pilots had walked out（罢工，退席） at Lufthansa, Lufthansa Cargo² and Germanwings over job security and pay issues.

There will be no further action until at least March 9, the union said.

A spokesman for the Cockpit（驾驶舱） union added the two sides had reached an agreement after a two-hour long hearing at a Frankfurt industrial court.

'Disproportionate'

However the strike has already disrupted an estimated 10,000 passengers around the world, with the carrier trying to arrange alternative travel for them.

It had been offering train journeys to domestic air travellers, and attempting to rebook international passengers on other airlines.

The airline normally offers about 1,800 flights daily - of which 160 are long-haul（长途的，长距离的） trips.

A Lufthansa spokeswoman said that about 960 flights had managed to go ahead.

The strike will be officially lifted at midnight on Monday (2300GMT) - but it is not clear when services will return to normal.

Lufthansa's earlier offer of negotiations with the pilots was not initially³ taken up on Sunday before the strike began.

Earlier a Lufthansa spokeswoman told the Associated Press that an injunction（命令，禁令） had been filed in Frankfurt, saying the action was "disproportionate".

'Unfounded'

German Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer had warned that the strike would hurt the country's economy as well as Lufthansa's reputation.

The airline - one of the world's largest - feared the action could cost it about 25m euros (£21.9m; $34m) per day.

The Cockpit union had arranged the action amid concerns the airline was increasingly relying on foreign pilots who fly for less pay.

It is worried that the company could try to cut staff costs by shifting jobs to foreign subsidiaries such as Austrian Airlines or Lufthansa Italia, where wages are lower.

The starting salary for a first officer in a Lufthansa cockpit is 62,000 euros, and 115,000 euros for a captain, according to the company's recruiting（招募，招聘） website.

Media reports say pilots' salaries can rise up to about 325,000 euros.

Cockpit has called for a 6.4% pay rise for pilots, more say in company decisions and commitments that pilots would keep their jobs when Lufthansa moves passengers to cheaper foreign affiliates⁴（子公司，分部） .

But Andreas Bartels from the airline told the BBC the pilots' fear that their jobs would be outsourced（转包，外包） was unfounded（未建立的，没有根据的） .

"That's what they fear but that's not reality. If you look to the reality, it's nothing like replacing or transferring jobs to other companies or other airlines [in] the Lufthansa airline system," he said.