The German airline Lufthansa has lost a labour dispute over whether pilots should have to wear their caps.

The federal labour court in Erfurt backed a pilot who had complained it was unfair to force male pilots to wear their hats in airports as the same rule did not apply to women.

Judges rejected the airline’s argument that the wearing of the navy blue and gold cap before or after a flight was part of company tradition.

The complainant, a pilot based in Munich, took legal action after an incident in 2009 over a flight to New York when he was not wearing his cap, and initially won his case in court.

But a subsequent court ruling found in favour of Lufthansa, which employs about 5,400 pilots, about 6% of them women.