MOSCOW, January 12 (RAPSI) – Transaero airline undergoing bankruptcy filed an appeal with the Moscow Commercial Court against decrees of the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviation) and Russia’s Transport Ministry over transfer of the airline’s international routes to Aeroflot, according to court records.

The appeal was registered on January 10 and will be transferred to the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals.

Transaero asks court to nullify Rosaviation’s decree revoking the airline’s right to transport passengers and cargo at 141 routes and transfer of 56 of these routes to Aeroflot and it subsidiary airline Rossiya. According to defendants, decision to revoke routes was made because Transaero’s air carrier certificate was no longer valid. Transaero argued that it had no time to fix violations that led to invalidation of the certificate. Despite this a court ruled that invalidation was legal and that transfer of routes was justified.

Several Aeroflot suits against Transaero are reviewed by courts. In December 2015, Transaero was ordered to pay out about 5.3 billion rubles ($85 million). On January 25, 2016, the court recovered from the defendant around 2.85 billion rubles ($45.9 million) it owed to the plaintiff. A counterclaim by Transaero seeking to find the loan agreement between airlines invalid was dismissed. The Ninth Commercial Court upheld the ruling. Both rulings have already taken effect.

In 2015, Transaero found itself unable to pay its debts estimated at 250 billion rubles (about $4 billion). 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.

In October 2015, Sberbank and Alfa Bank filed bankruptcy petitions against the troubled airline. The Commercial Court of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region initiated a bankruptcy procedure against Transaero on December 16.

On November 17 of this year, Transaero air carrier filed an application with the Commercial Court of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region seeking to drop bankruptcy proceedings against it. Transaero managers submitted the company’s business resumption plan. The airline’s management headed by Director General Alexander Burdin analyzed alternatives which could make it possible to return money to creditors via relaunching the airline on the base of its assets.

On November 23, the Commercial Court of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region postponed hearings in Sberbank’s bankruptcy claim against Transaero until March 1, 2017. Temporary manager of the airline filed a motion to adjourn hearings because all demands of creditors were met.