A Munich court has rejected a request by Lufthansa to issue a temporary injunction to prevent the latest strike planned by the German airline's pilots in a long-running dispute over pay.
Lufthansa had sought the injunction after it was forced to cancel 2,800 flights because of last week's four-day strike.
It said a further two days of strike action would result in 1,700 cancellations.
"The Munich labour court has dismissed the application because the planned strike measures are not evidently illegal," the court said in a statement.
Lufthansa had argued that demands by pilots for higher pay increases for staff with at least 12 years of service infringe a German law on equal treatment, the court said, adding that the airline has appealed against the decision not to halt the strikes.
"We will now examine the reasons for the verdict and possible further legal steps," Lufthansa said by email.
Lufthansa has offered to increase the pilots' pay by 4.4% in two instalments and to make a one-off payment worth 1.8 months' pay over a six-year period.
The Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) union is demanding an average annual pay rise of 3.7% for 5,400 pilots over a five-year period backdated to 2012. VC rejected the latest pay offer from Lufthansa late on Friday.
