MOSCOW, September 19 - RAPSI. The Moscow Commercial Court will hear the federal aviation watchdog lawsuit to annul the Federal Antimonopoly Service's decision that it hindered Transaero's international development on October 16, the court told RAPSI on Wednesday.

The watchdog, Rosaviatsiya, asked the court to dismiss the antimonopoly watchdog's decision. The court finished the preliminary hearings on Wednesday and scheduled a hearing on the merits.

Transaero said in late November that Rosaviatsiya illegally prohibited it from flying to Italy.

Aeroflot, Russia's leading airline, which was the only carrier that ran Moscow-Rome and Moscow-Milan flights, said Transaero was not entitled to sell tickets on charter flights to Italy because it had not been officially assigned to run flights on the route, and had not obtained a permit to do so.

Rosaviatsiya later said Russia and Italy had agreed to assign one more Russian airline to run Moscow-Rome and Moscow-Milan charter flights during the 2011-2012 winter season.

The antimonopoly watchdog added that, according to the available information, Rosaviatsiya granted permits on November 2 to several airlines, including Transaero, to run charter flights on the Moscow-Rome, Moscow-Milan and Moscow-Venice routes. Transaero entered into contracts to run charter flights in winter 2011-2012 based on the decision.

The airline was expected to start flying to Italy on December 28.

However, Rosaviatsiya annulled the permits on November 10.