Trade body 'Airlines for America' had filed a lawsuit in November last year against the US Exim Bank opposing the loan guarantee to Air India to buy the much-awaited Boeing 787 Dreamliners, saying the financial support would put US carriers at a commercial disadvantage.

The US Exim Bank had in October last approved loan guarantees of USD 1.3 billion to support Air India's fleet acquisition from Boeing and another USD 2.1 billion preliminary commitment to support future deliveries of the US aerospace company's planes to the Indian national carrier.

Rejecting the plea, Judge James Boasberg of the US District Court for Columbia said the trade group had failed to show that American carriers will suffer significant financial loss if the Boeing jets are delivered to Air India.

"Because plaintiffs have not demonstrated a likelihood that they will suffer irreparable harm during the pendency of the lawsuit in the absence of an injunction, the court will deny their requested relief," Boasberg ruled.

The judge further noted that "none of the airlines participating in this lawsuit currently offers a direct flight between the US and India."

Maintaining that only two planes were scheduled to be delivered to Air India by March, he pointed out that it was "wholly speculative" to assume that these deliveries would cause financial injury to US carriers.

In a statement after the ruling on Friday, the group said, "We are confident the court will find that there is clear evidence demonstrating that the Ex-Im Bank failed to meet its statutory requirements. Greater transparency and process reform at the Ex-Im Bank are long overdue to ensure that US airlines are not disadvantaged by the bank's loan guarantees of foreign airlines."

The group had called Air India "one of the most poorly- run airlines in the world" and said losses and management troubles at the carrier should disqualify it from the financing.

It had said the US loan guarantees enable foreign carriers to obtain financing for aircraft at considerably lower rates, in some cases up to 50 per cent lower, than what US airlines must pay on the commercial market.

It had asked the court to find the Air India loan-guarantee commitments unlawful, to prevent the loan guarantees from being issued and to order injunctive relief requiring the Exim Bank to comply with its statutory obligations.

The judge said the group could not prove how an increase in foreign carriers' capacity would affect the ability of US carriers to sell seats on their own international flights.