OREANDA-NEWS. During January-September 2007, UTair (UTair Aviation, CJSC) carried 2,232,945 passengers, up 21.1 percent as compared to the same period in 2006, the company's press service reported.

Moreover, the company also made substantial advances as to other performance indicators during the reported period. In particular, the passenger traffic rose 25,1 percent. In the period of January-September, mail and cargo volume carried by the airline’s transport aircraft went up by 35.2 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively.UTair’s airplanes logged 95,570 flight hours, up 16.2 percent from the previous year. Helicopter flying time amounted to 51,364 hours, or 9.5 percent more than in the same period in 2006. The volume of cargo carried by helicopters increased 21.9 percent to 54,547.9 tonnes over the period in question.

According to UTair’s business plan, its airplanes and helicopters will spend over 200,000 hours in the air in 2007, and the company anticipates to carry more than 3m passengers, as well as introduce some thirty new routes. Helicopter operations will be held in Russia and ten more countries, with helicopter service exports increasing by more than 26 percent.