OREANDA-NEWS. July 14, 2010. The UTair Aviation Annual General Shareholder Meeting was held. At the meeting, UTair shareholders approved the company’s annual report, accounts and profit and loss statement for 2009 and the dividend distribution for 2009. It was resolved to pay dividends of 0.1 ruble per ordinary share to UTair shareholders.

UTair Aviation revenue from core activities in 2009 amounted to 33,298,969,000 rubles, 0.4% more than in 2008. The airline made a net profit of 203,554,000 rubles.

Based on 2009 results UTair has become one of the top five Russian airlines in terms of passenger traffic and the largest helicopter operator in Russia. According to the annual report, in 2009 UTair carried 3,884,179 passengers, 15.1% more than in 2008. According to official data from the Transport Clearing House, UTair Aviation has been the leading carrier on domestic passenger flights since November 2009. In 2009 the company actively developed its route network and launched expansion plans in the markets of European part of Russia and abroad. The new flights have been launched between Moscow and Barnaul, Omsk, Perm, Murmansk, Ulyanovsk, Tomsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and others. Flight frequency has also been stepped up on certain routes. According to the airline's fleet modernisation program, 16 Boeing and 17 ATR aircaft have been added to UTair’s fleet.

UTair’s service network covered 16 countries in 2009 with more than 50 helicopters in operation and more than 500 UTair employees engaged in providing services abroad. The carrier’s helicopters logged 79,377 flight hours. UTair has also maintained a helicopter fleet modernization program. According to contract agreements with Ulan-Ude Aviation, a leading manufacturer of Russian helicopters, UTair further expanded its fleet with new Mi-171 helicopters and today has more than 30 such aircraft in operation. UTair has also been developing cooperation with Eurocopter. The carrier has been successfully operating Eurocopter light AS 355N, AS 350B3 and BO 105 helicopters and has become the launch customer for Eurocopter's latest model EC 175. Its deliveries are scheduled to begin in 2012.

Members of the Supervisory and Audit Committees were also elected at the Annual Shareholder meeting. The shareholders appointed the company’s auditors for 2010, Rosexpertisa LLC for RAS accounting and KPMG for IRFS accounting.