OREANDA-NEWS. January 26, 2010. In the 12 months of 2009 UTair Aviation transported 3,884,179 passengers aboard its aircraft and helicopter fleet, a 9.9% increase over 2008.

During the reporting period, significant growth of other operational indicators was marked. UTair’s Passenger turnover for January - December 2009 grew more than 15% in comparison with the same period last year. UTair reached seat load factor of more than 71% in 2009, 0.9 points higher than for the same period in 2008.

In 2009 UTair transported approximately 10,000 tons of cargo and more than 2 tons of mail. The company’s airplanes logged 146,170 flight hours, 2.1% more than last year.

The airline’s helicopter division continues to demonstrate positive growth. In the period January-December 2009 the volume of cargo transported increased 2.5% and constituted 57,982 tons. Logged flight time for the helicopter fleet reached 79,377 hours.

The UTair business plan for 2010 projects a combined 300,000 flight hours logged by its fleet of planes and helicopters. More than 100 aircraft and more than 200 helicopters of various types and classes will be in operation. In 2010 the airline expects to transport more than 4.8 million passengers, 34% more than expected for 2009 totals. Helicopter operations will expand in Russia and in eleven other countries.

UTair's operational figures for 2009:

Production performance

Unit of Measurement

12 months 2008

12 months 2009

Relative deviation, %

Transport aviation (aircraft)

Revenue passenger-kilometers (RPK)

thousand passenger kilometers

5 063 116.4

5 827 926.4

115.1

 

Passengers

pers.

3 225 081

3 526 469

109.3

 

Mail transported

tons

1 889.7

2 009.9

106.4

 

Production logged time

hours

143 100

146 170

102.1

 

Helicopter Operations

Production logged time

hours

79 280

79 377

100.1

 

Passengers transported

pers.

310 423

357 710

115.2

 

Freight transported

tons

56 580.5

57 982.8

102.5