OREANDA-NEWS. UTair Aviation held its annual Investor Day. The meeting of the UTair's top-management with analysts and investors is a leading tradition towards establishing accountability and transparency in relations between the airline’s management and the investment community. Almost 80 representatives of the largest financial companies, investment funds and banks took part in the meeting. UTair CEO Andrey Martirosov, Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the airline and Executive Director of NPF Surgutneftegaz Ruslan Gabdulkhakov and UTair CFO Igor Petrov hosted the meeting and spoke about the airline's development plans, presented their outlook on the Russian economy and answered tough questions from the investment community.

“UTair shows stable growth in operational results, exceeding the market average,” said UTair CEO Andrey Martirosov. “Passenger turnover last year grew by almost 30% over 2011, logged flight hours increased by 27.5% and our passenger load factor reached 74.3%.” By 2016 UTair’s current fleet now counting 600 aircraft of different classes and types will be expanded with an additional 46 aircraft and 96 helicopters. “Active fleet development will allow us to become a leading Russian airline with youngest and most modern fleet in Russia by 2020,” commented Martirosov.

Discussing the important directions for the Group, Martirosov also highlighted UTair plans to strengthen its positions on leisure travel market by including more long-haul destinations, adapting the UTair route network to the capabilities of new aircraft in the fleet and creating a full feature airport for low-cost carriers on base of Yermolino Airport northeast of Kaluga. “The key objective in the helicopter segment remains increasing market share in Russia and entering new, high profit markets of onshore and offshore operations abroad. That will allow to UTair to establish itself in the second position among the world's among the largest helicopter operators by 2014,” said Martirosov.

UTair CFO Igor Petrov summarized the Group’s activities for 2012. UTair revenue exceeded 79 bln RUR, 44% more than for 2011. EBITDA profitability rose 19%, EBITDAR – 33%. Furthermore, four major deals for the purchase of aircraft were successfully completed - three Boeing 767-224 ER aircraft, six Boeing 737-500 aircraft, four Boeing 737-800 and six ATR 72-500 aircraft. He also reminded that UTair is now the only representative of the aviation industry which shares listed on the A1 quotation list of the Moscow Stock Exchange as well as listed on the RTS-2 index. “Over the past two and a half years of trading, UTair bonds increased in value by more than 70%,” Petrov said. “The company ranks 23rd among the Top-100 of the most valuable Russian companies,” he added.

Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the airline – Executive Director of NPF Surgutneftegaz Ruslan Gabdulkhakov informed participants that shareholders support the development strategy and the UTair program to increase capitalization. “These documents are constantly improved taking into account macroeconomic factors, the company’s position in the industry and financial results,” Gabdulkhakov explained and remarked that NPF Surgutneftegaz plays an active role in the realization of this UTair program. “Jointly with the management of the airline, NPF Surgutneftegaz will make every effort needed for stable and dynamic development,” Gabdulkhakov summed up.

A separate component of the UTair presentation included an analysis of the macroeconomic situation in the country and solutions that UTair has developed in response to the environmental changes. “The dynamic portrait of passenger carriage correlates significantly with Russian GDP,” said Martirosov. “This year the gap between the economic growth rate and aviation industry market have reached a critical level. However, forecast for GDP prospects are significantly decreased,” Martirosov continued. According to Martirosov's professional estimation, it is already crucial to prepare for possible economical challenges. “UTair’s priority is to increase the efficiency of its operations and create a unique product combining best practices of networked and low-cost carriers, namely comfort and high quality service at reasonable prices,” he summed up.