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* Flight attendants' union willing to talk this weekend
* UFO says strike won't be prolonged or extended to other
airlines
* Lufthansa to cancel 1,300 flights over two days
(Recasts with changes throughout)
FRANKFURT, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Lufthansa is ready to
go into arbitration to resolve a long-running staff dispute, the
CEO of Germany's largest airline said on Thursday, as a walkout
by flight attendants disrupted travel plans of tens of thousands
of passengers.
An end to the row over pay and pensions, and the legal
status of flight attendants' union UFO would relieve the company
of a major headache.
Lufthansa faces intense competition from Ryanair and
easyJet and has reacted by cutting costs and announcing
a turnaround plan for its budget unit Eurowings, which it said
on Thursday was paying off as it reported better-than-expected
quarterly figures.
Shares in the Frankfurt-based group were up 8.5% at 1140
GMT.
"We are confident of finding a way to resolve legal
questions by going into arbitration," Lufthansa CEO Carsten
Spohr said.
The airline and the union have been at odds for months over
UFO's legal status. Lufthansa says the union leadership that
took office earlier this year was not elected in a way that met
legal requirements - a stance that UFO contests.
UFO official Nicoley Baublies said his union was accepting
the offer of weekend talks and would decide afterwards about
formal arbitration talks.
"We will make this attempt. We don't yet know whether it
will be successful," he said.
UFO for now will not prolong the two-day strike at
Lufthansa's core brand or extend it to other airlines within the
group, the union said.
QUIET TERMINALS
Lufthansa on Wednesday said it expected to cancel a total of
1,300 flights on Thursday and Friday with 180,000 passengers
affected.
Frankfurt, one of the airline largest hubs in Europe, was
most affected by the walkout, with some 400 connections
cancelled on Thursday alone, the airline said.
The departure board on Frankfurt airport's website showed
cancelled flights to Germany, Europe and the United States.
But there were no signs of chaos. "It's quiet in the
terminals," a spokeswoman for the airport said, adding that many
passengers had rebooked onto different flights and had not shown
up.
The DAX-listed company this week unsuccessfully tried to
challenge the walkout in court.
One day of strike action would cost the company an estimated
10 million to 20 million euros, CFO Ulrik Svensson said. Even
rumours of a walkout would deter customers, he added.
(Reporting by Ilona Wissenbach and Sabine Wollrab in Frankfurt,
Klaus Lauer in Berlin; writing by Thomas Seythal; editing by
Thomas Escritt and Elaine Hardcastle)
