Walkouts by members of the airline pilots' union Cockpit affected 465 flights of Lufthansa subsidiary airlines Tuesday and are expected to ground more than 500 Wednesday, affecting tens of thousands of passengers.

The strike began at noon Tuesday and is scheduled to last until midnight Wednesday. The Cockpit union asked its more than 1,000 members to not show up for work at the subsidiary airlines Eurowings and Lufthansa CityLine.

The strike has forced Lufthansa to cancel almost 1,000 flights -- 465 on Tuesday and 525 on Wednesday, according to a company statement. The affected planes are primarily smaller aircraft making frequent connections between European countries as well as connecting flights between regional German airports and the major hubs in Frankfurt and Munich. The major airports affected are those of Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Hamburg, Berlin, Nuremberg, Düsseldorf and Hanover.

The strike does not affect long-haul flights, flights operated directly by Lufthansa or the flights of other Lufthansa subsidiary airlines, such as Air Dolomiti. The airline is purchasing tickets for waylaid passengers due to traval on domestic flights on Deutsche Bahn, Germany's national railway, and putting as many affected passengers as possible on other flights operated by the group.

The strike stems from a wage dispute between the airline and the pilots' union. The union has rejected Lufthansa's most recent offer, claiming it was insufficient, although it will not say exactly what it is seeking. The offer included a 5.5-percent pay increase and one-time bonus payment to CityLine pilots and a 6.5-percent pay increase and one-time bonus payment to the Eurowings pilots.

For the time being, although the sides are negotiating, Lufthansa plans to stick firm to the belief that its offer was a fair one. The strike is "not comprehensible," company spokesman Michael Lamberti told the Associated Press, adding that the company was "trying to be as accommodating as possible" during the talks.

Union officials are confident, however, that the strike will succeed in eliciting higher wage offers from the airline. "We are happy with the solidarity shown by the pilots," Ilona Ritter, a senior union official, told the German news agency DPA Wednesday.

A similar one-day walkout by the union two weeks ago affected 600 flights. The airline has also been embroiled in a wage battle with the Ver.di union, which is seeking wage increases for the roughly 60,000 ground and cabin personnel it represents. The fourth round of talks between Lufthansa and Ver.di collapsed on July 10, and the union is expected to announce Friday whether it will call for additional strikes, which could come as early as Saturday.