OREANDA-NEWS. UTair Aviation (UTair Aviation, JSC) carried 2,228,352 passengers from January through November this year, which is a 30.2 percent growth compared with the same period a year earlier.

The company also reported a substantial improvement in other operating indicators. In particular, the passenger traffic added 24.2 percent reaching some 3,403,662,000 passenger-kilometers.

The volume of mail and cargo carried by transport aircraft went up 24 percent and 17.1 percent respectively from January through November 2006.

UTair’s airplanes flew for 100,452 hours, up 16 percent from a year earlier.

The flying time of the airline’s helicopters added up to 55,440 hours, which is a 13.9 percent advance compared with the first eleven months of 2005.

From January through November 2005, UTair’s helicopters transported 57,939.6 tonnes of cargo, or up 6.5 percent.

According to UTair’s business plan, the company’s airplanes and helicopters will spend 166,800 hours in the air in 2006. More than 2.5m passengers will be transported and 12 new routes introduced. Helicopter operations will be conducted in Russia and nine foreign countries, with the volume of helicopter service exports increasing by more than 25 percent.