Ryanair has lost a High Court bid to prevent the Labour Court going ahead with a formal investigation into a row between the airline and a number of its pilots.

After yesterday's judgment by Mr Justice Michael Hanna, Ryanair indicated it would appeal the judge's decision to the Supreme Court.

The airline had brought proceedings aimed at quashing a finding by the Labour Court that there is a trade dispute between Ryanair and the trade union Impact, which represents the Irish Airline Pilots Association.

Last January, the Labour Court found it had jurisdiction to hear complaints by the airline's pilots.

In a reserved judgment on Ryanair's challenge to the Labour Court's decision yesterday, Mr Justice Michael Hanna found against Ryanair and refused to put a stay on his finding in the event of a Supreme Court appeal.

He also allowed costs against the airline but placed a three-week stay on the costs' order.

The court heard that the issue at the centre of the of the row began in summer 2004 when Ryanair began the conversion of its Dublin fleet, which involved training for the pilots concerned. In November 2004, the company said it would not negotiate with Impact but would negotiate directly with the pilots, who subsequently referred the matter to the Labour Court.

The Labour Court found that a trade dispute exists under the Industrial Relations Act, 2001, that it was not Ryanair's practice to engage in collective bargaining and there was no operative internal dispute resolution procedure in place.

Ryanair had submitted it had traditionally operated non-union recognition in relation to its employees and had an Employee Representative Committee where matters were resolved.

The judge said yesterday that the Labour Court was entitled to conduct its hearing in the manner in which it had and held the Labour Court could go on to carry out its full investigation.

He found the Labour Court was in charge of its own procedures. It was not a court of law and had a less formalistic path than there might be in the courts, he said. It was entitled to manage its own affairs, provided they were within statutory provisions.