Air passengers in Germany are likely to face disruption today as ground crew and cabin staff at Deutsche Lufthansa go on strike in Frankfurt and Hamburg.

The Verdi union, which represents 52,000 air industry workers, planned to start striking at midnight.

Union officials said the unlimited strike, the first in 13 years at Lufthansa, would affect all support areas, from catering and cargo to maintenance and repair staff. Some 91 percent of union members voted to strike, Verdi said on Friday.

"Our strike is not aimed at passengers - our goal is to put financial pressure on the company," said Verdi spokesman Harald Reutter yesterday, trying to defuse public anger. "It's up to Lufthansa to decide how many flights are canceled."

Earlier Verdi had been vague about where the strikes would start. The union plans walkouts at Germany's 10 largest airports - Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin, Hamburg, Duesseldorf, Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Hanover, Leipzig and Bremen.

Verdi, which has lost influence since the last Lufthansa strike in 1994, wants a 9.8-percent pay rise for one year. Lufthansa, Europe's second-largest airline by passenger numbers, is offering 6.7 percent over 21 months and a one-off payment.

Lufthansa has said it will have to see where the strikes happen before deciding how many domestic and international flights to cancel. It has said it hopes to juggle non-striking staff to limit the impact of the strike.

"We'll have to wait and see," a Lufthansa spokeswoman said yesterday. "The top priority is to try to limit the impact to as few passengers as possible."

Facing heavy criticism from political and industry leaders, the union is likely to limit the action to targeted strikes.

One analyst, Frank Skodzik of Commerzbank, was quoted in Der Tagesspiegel newspaper as saying the strike could cost Lufthansa five million euros (US$7.84 million) a day.