MOSCOW, May 11 - RAPSI. Moskva Airlines has appealed lower-court judicial acts on the recovery of over $17.61 million in a lawsuit filed by the Russian Technologies state corporation.
The amount includes $15.2 million in primary debt. In February, the Moscow Commercial Court recovered the funds from the airline.
The decision was left in force by the appeals instance in March. The company then disputed the judicial acts in the Moscow District Federal Commercial Court.
The hearings in the case were held behind closed doors. The Bank of Moscow was involved in the process as a third party.
According to the case materials, the plaintiff discharged the defendant's obligations under a September 22, 2008 credit contract between the airline and the Bank of Moscow.
In its lawsuit, the state corporation demanded that the defendant return the amount paid to the bank, including the primary debt and interest.
The Moscow Commercial Court has upheld the claims of two similar lawsuits filed by Russian Technologies against Moskva Airlines to recover 531 million rubles ($17.6 million) under credit from the Bank of Moscow and 180.5 million rubles ($5.98 million) under VTB Bank credit.
In April, the commercial court upheld another lawsuit filed by the corporation against the airline. The claim amounted to 574.2 million rubles ($19.04 million) and is connected with a loan contract for 24 metric tons of fuel.
Moskva Airlines was founded in June 1993 as Atlant-Soyuz Airlines. In 2007, private investors owned a 75 percent stake in the company. The remaining 25 percent stake belonged to Moscow. On September 17, 2010, the airline was renamed Moscow Airlines.
Due to the company's worsening financial situation, it tried to reduce the number of its flights in December 2010 and halted ticket sales. The airline ceased operations in January 2011.