Volga-Dnepr Group has lost a case against Boeing (BOE, Washington National) in a court in the United States, allowing the manufacturer to sell one B747-8(F) and three B777-Fs that had previously been meant for the cargo group’s carrier, The Loadstar reported on June 3.

Volga-Dnepr had tried to obtain a temporary order stopping Boeing from marketing the aircraft to other parties, but it failed to win any of the legal arguments. Essentially, it had not been able to make a payment when the delivery of the B747-8F was due in February or for three B777-Fs it had on order.

Boeing opted to re-market them, something Volga-Dnepr Group okayed it to do, but as cargo rates rose with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the group found the money and attempted to get the freighters back. With the contract broken, however, Boeing had found other customers.

The group claimed it had merely “warned” Boeing in January, before the scheduled delivery, that it may not be able to pay. It also argued that Boeing was the one that “changed its mind and decided to take a different path.”

Judge Ricardo Martinez of the US District Court for the Western District of Washington ruled that a further claim that the group would lose millions of dollars without the freighters was actually “a consequence of its own actions.”

“While Volga-Dnepr describes Boeing’s actions as ‘profiteering’ from the Covid-19 pandemic, the court finds this claim unsupported by the current record,” he said.

Volga-Dnepr Group operates across five AOCs including Volga-Dnepr Airlines (VI, Ulyanovsk Vostochny), AirBridgeCargo (RU, Ulyanovsk Vostochny), and Atran (V8, Moscow Vnukovo) in Russia, CargoLogicAir (P3, London Stansted) in the United Kingdom, and CargoLogic Germany (GCL, Leipzig/Halle). It was the UK wing of the group that sought the legal action against Boeing.

Volga-Dnepr Airlines currently operates nine An-124-100s and five Il-76TDs, AirBridge Cargo four B747-400(F)s and twelve B747-8(F)s, Atran three B737-400(F)s and two B737-800(F)s, according to the ch-aviation fleets module. CargoLogicAir operates two B747-400(F)s, and CargoLogic Germany three B737-400(F)s.