OREANDA-NEWS. June 19, 2007.  From January through May 2007, UTair (UTair Aviation, JSC) carried 954,975 passengers, which is 21.1 percent more than in the same period of 2006.

In addition, the company also reported a substantial improvement in other performance indicators. In particular, passenger traffic rose 27 percent.

The volume of mail and cargo carried by transport aircraft went up by 53.8 percent and 39.2 percent respectively in January-May 2007 from a year earlier.

UTair’s airplanes logged 44,494 flight hours, up 20.6 percent from the previous year.

The company’s helicopter flying time amounted to 20,747 hours, or 9.4 percent more than in the same period in 2006.

The volume of cargo carried by helicopters increased 24.7 percent to 14,363.1 tonnes over the period in question.

According to UTair’s business plan, its airplanes and helicopters will spend over 200,000 hours in the air in 2007. More than 3m passengers are to be carried and some thirty new routes are to be introduced. Helicopter operations will be conducted in Russia and ten more countries, with helicopter service exports increasing by more than 26 percent.