Volga-Dnepr loses court battle to Boeing over freighters

Volga-Dnepr Group has lost a case against Boeing (BOE, Chicago O’Hare) 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.”