OREANDA-NEWS. October 24, 2011. Russian market rating agency Expert RA has confirmed an A level rating for UTair-Finance, a subsidiary of UTair Aviation and issuer of the airline’s bonds.

The ranking recognizes the transparency and performance parameters of UTair-Finance that support the airline’s active development, a leading security for bond loans, and the broad diversification of UTair’s business activity, strong market position, high liquidity levels, asset growth and impeccable credit history.

UTair-Finance was founded to develop and implement programs for attracting investment to the parent company. Since 2004 UTair Finance has completed nine bond issues with a total nominal value of 13 billion rubles, three of which have been successfully redeemed. The bonds of other six issues with total value of 9 billion rubles to date are quoted in the top-level A1 list on the MICEX Stock Exchange.

UTair is the leading helicopter operator in the world in terms of transport capacity and fleet size, with more than 330 domestic and foreign made helicopters in operation.

UTair Airlines is among the top-three passenger airlines in Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Baltic and CIS countries. In 2011, the company's aircraft will carry over 7 million passengers.