OREANDA-NEWS. November 15, 2012. Alfa-Bank has extended the line of credit for UTair Group to 9.5 billion rubles in confirmation of the airline’s reputation and creditworthiness.

The letter of credit for the airline features credit lines for UTair Aviation and UTair-Leasing, facilitating a broad range of trade finance transactions, including unpaid letter of credit (SBLC). The bank has also purchased securities issued by UTair Group.

“We highly appreciate our cooperation with Alfa-Bank, which is one of our largest creditors, offering borrowing funds with maximum comfort in terms of securing debt financing,” said UTair Aviation’s chief financial officer Igor Petrov. “Besides providing credit to the management company, Alfa-Bank finances UTair-Leasing deals for the lease of airport equipment and the purchase of Mil Mi-171 helicopters. Raising our credit limit confirms our reputation of creditworthiness and our credibility in the eyes of the largest financial institution. Alfa-Bank is our long-term partner and we actively seek to extend our cooperation with them and expect further development of this fruitful relationship”.

The UTair Group consists of a range of companies performing air transport operations, maintenance and repair of aircraft and rotorcraft, training of flight personnel, flight services and sales. UTair Aviation is the core enterprise of UTair Group, consisting of UTair Aviation, UTair Express, UTair-Ukraine, UTair-Cargo, Turukhan Airlines, Nefteyugansk, Vostok, Helisur, UTair Europe s.r.o., UTair South Africa Ltd and UTair India alongside UTair-Technik and UTair Engineering. The Group operates more than 200 fixed wing aircraft and 350 helicopters. According to UTair Group financial statements, 2011 revenues constituted 54.12 million rubles and surpassed 2010 revenues by 27.6%. UTair Group net income for 2011 constituted 261.2 million rubles, 21.2% more than for the previous year.UTair Group headquarters are located in Surgut, with subsidiaries in Surgut, Tyumen, Khanty-Mansiisk, Moscow and other cities of Russia and around the globe.