Berlin, Muharram 24, 1437, Nov 6, 2015, SPA -- Lufthansa cancelled 290 flights Friday after its flight attendants announced the first stoppages in a rolling eight-day strike in defence of their retirement benefits, according to dpa. The airline reserved 2,500 hotel rooms in Frankfurt, the airline's main hub, to accommodate thousands of incoming passengers at risk of being stranded in the city. Frankfurt is a principal redistributor point for passenger traffic between India and North America. Of the 290 cancelled flights - 10 per cent of daily movements by the group - 15 were intercontinental routes, with the rest within Europe. Lufthansa said 37,500 passengers were affected. --SPA 14:42 LOCAL TIME 11:42 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w