MOSCOW, August 13 - RAPSI, Sergei Feklyunin. The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals set September 10 to hear a lawsuit by Russia's largest airline, Aeroflot, against a lower court decision which dismissed its defamation lawsuit against the newspaper Izvestia, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) on Friday.

The lawsuit centers on an Izvestia's article published in February which alleged that Aeroflot pilots fall asleep at the controls during flights as a result of their excessive workload. The plaintiff demanded that the newspaper retract the allegations and pay five million rubles ($157,260) in moral damages.

The Moscow Commercial Court dismissed Aeroflot's suit in June. The plaintiff has produced no real evidence that the published charges were inaccurate as written in the article's headline and text, judge Nikolai Tarasov said in the ruling.

Izvestia does not recognize the claims. The newspaper's lawyer said in court, that there was no mentioning in the article that the company had violated the law. In addition, although the article mentioned Aeroflot, there are 83 other companies that use the same word in their names. Therefore, Izvestia claims, the plaintiff first needs to prove that the article was referring specifically to the airline.

Aeroflot is a member of SkyTeam global air alliance. The state, represented by the Federal Agency for State Property, is the airline's major shareholder, holding a 51.17-percent stake.