MOSCOW, January 16 - RAPSI. The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals has dismissed the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) complaint disputing the nullification of its ruling that the Federal Air Transport Agency (FATA) hindered competition in the international flight market by prohibiting the airline Transaero from flying to Italy.

In October 2012, the Moscow Commercial Court held in favor of FATA, which had asked the court to dismiss the earlier FAS decision. Transaero said in late November that the agency illegally banned the company from flying to Italy.

Aeroflot, Russia's leading airline and the only carrier that ran flights between Moscow and Rome and Milan, said Transaero was not entitled to sell tickets on charter flights to Italy because it had not been officially assigned to conduct flights on the route, nor had it obtained a permit to do so.

The Federal Air Transport Agency 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 service added that, according to the information available, the Federal Air Transport Agency granted permits on November 2, 2011, to several airlines, including Transaero, to run charter flights on the Moscow-Rome, Moscow-Milan and Moscow-Venice routes.

Transaero signed contracts to run charter flights in winter 2011-2012 based on this decision. The airline was expected to start flying to Italy on December 28. However, the Federal Air Transport Agency annulled the permits on November 10.

Transaero is Russia's first private airline, established on November 5, 1991.