Berlin - A pay strike by ground and cabin staff at Lufthansa entered its second day Tuesday with the German airline cancelling several flights, as services union Verdi extended its industrial action to additional airports.

Germany's largest airline said nine aircraft of its fleet of 520 were inoperable as they had not undergone the required maintenance. Lufthansa cancelled a total of 16 domestic flights from three different airports.

Lufthansa spokeswoman Claudia Lange said long-haul flights were not affected.

Verdi, Germany's second largest union with 2.2 million members, said it had extended the strike action at the peak of the holiday season from Frankfurt, Munich and Hamburg to include Nuremberg and the two Berlin airports.

Stuttgart would follow in the course of the day, the union said, which is demanding a 9.8-per-cent pay rise for 50,000 Lufthansa workers. Pilots are not involved in the current strike.

Verdi, which has said it was attempting to target Lufthansa financially by forcing the airline to take expensive emergency measures, repeated its prediction the strike would begin to bite in the days ahead.

Lufthansa, which is offering a 6.7-per-cent increase over a 21-month contract plus a one-off payment, urged the union to return to talks. (dpa)