MOSCOW, January 18 (RAPSI) – Gazprombank, Russia's third largest bank, filed a claim with the Commercial Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region seeking 13.6 billion rubles ($178 million) from insolvent airline Transaero, according to court records.

The first hearing into the claim is scheduled to take place on March 16.

Currently, this is the largest sum demanded from Transaero by one of its numerous creditors.

Russian state-owned banks Sberbank, VTB and VEB account for 120 billion roubles ($1.9 billion) of Transaero's debt of over 250 billion roubles.

Aeroflot, Russian Regional Development Bank, and RN-Aero, Rosneft subsidiary, are also among Transaero creditors.

In October, Sberbank and Alfa Bank filed bankruptcy petitions against the troubled airline. In November, a bankruptcy lawsuit against Transaero was lodged by VTB bank.

Government-approved plan of transferring 75% of company’s shares to Aeroflot failed. Its problems resulted in a large number of flight cancels and delays.