Senior executives at Lufthansa are calling for a mediator in an ongoing pay dispute with pilots, German magazine Der Spiegel reported, raising hopes that a looming strike could be averted.

A company spokeswoman declined to comment on the report, only adding that the company continued to be interested in a constructive solution in the ongoing trade dispute.

We will do anything next week to come closer to a solution, she said.

It would not be the first time that the company has tried to solve trade disputes with the help of arbiters.

Lufthansa's last major dispute with pilots in 2001, resulting in a pay deal which added 125 million euros ($166.6 million) a year to staff costs, had to be mediated by Germany's former foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher.

Pilots at Lufthansa are planning to go on strike again April 13-16 after failing to resolve a dispute over pay and job security that already caused a costly work stoppage in February, the Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union said last Monday.

The company's pilots walked out last month, but at the urging of a labor judge agreed to suspend the planned four-day strike after only one day to try to work out their differences with the German carrier's management.

Still, the work stoppage had led to about 2,000 flight cancellations and cost Lufthansa up to 50 million euros.

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz, editing by Mike Peacock)

Germany