OREANDA-NEWS. On 17 July 2009 was announced, that the key operating figures of UTair Aviation in June 2009 exceeded the corresponding figures for the same period of 2008.

In June of this year UTair Aviation carried 337 thousand 559 passengers, which exceeds the corresponding figures of the previous year by 4,6%. Despite the significant decline in demand for passenger air transportation 1 million 437 thousand 311 passengers have used UTair services as of the end of the first half of year 2009.

Another key aviation figure is the Company’s passenger traffic, which has increased by 5,9% in comparison with the figure for June 2008 and reached 585,2 million passenger kilometers. In June 2009 the passenger load factor on UTair flights made 74,5%, which is a 7 points rise compared with the previous year figure.

Helicopter business of UTair Aviation shows consistently high performance figures. In June 2009 UTair helicopters carried 3 thousand tons of cargo and helicopter revenue flight time totaled to 7 450 hours. As of the end of the first half of year 2009 UTair helicopters have flown 32 thousand hours which exceeds the figure of 2008.

In spring-summer 2009 UTair regular flights will connect 65 cities in Russia and abroad. The summer operational program includes over 100 aircraft of various types performing more than 200 flights each day. In spring- summer period of 2009 the Company launched a number of new flights namely from Samara to Tel Aviv, from Moscow to Mineralnye Vody, from St. Petersburg to Kaliningrad and others. In accordance with UTair Business Plan the Company’s fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft are going to fly 257, 8 thousand hours in 2009. Passenger aircraft are to carry 3,8 million passengers. UTair Aviation is going to operate helicopters both in Russia and in ten foreign countries.