A GERMAN court ruled yesterday that Lufthansa pilots must halt a strike that led to the cancellation of around 1,000 flights.

Pilots’ union Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) said that the decision meant that all pilots must return to work immediately.

The union commenced its series of strikes around 18 months ago.

Initially the aim had been to prevent changes to early retirement benefits but the pilots have also sought to prevent low-cost expansion at the airline.

Lufthansa had previously tried to stop the strike, the 13th in 18 months, with a temporary injunction but two courts had ruled in favour of the pilots’ union on Tuesday night.

VC said the regional labour court that overruled those decisions to disallow the strike held that the original reason for the strike — the retirement benefits — had been pushed to one side and that the pilots were actually on strike for a different reason.

“We are surprised by the decision,” said VC spokesman Markus Wahl. “We will review the decision and draw the consequences for our continuing battle.”

German employers’ association BDA hailed the strike ban, claiming that the strikes were damaging the economy and were legally questionable.

“The question of which planes, which carriers and which company units to use on which routes falls under the freedom to make commercial decisions and should not be attacked through industrial action,” insisted BDA president Ingo Kramer.