OREANDA-NEWS. July 14, 2010. UTair Aviation subsidiary UTair Europe continues its firefighting operations in Turkey. UTair Europe helicopters are based in the cities of Chanakkale on the Dardanelles Strait and Izmir on the Aegean Sea, and will provide on call service to the end of October 2010. Another UTair subsidiary, UTair South Africa, is also involved in fire fighting operations in Turkey. The airline uses Mil Mi-171 and Mi-8MTV-1 helicopters equipped with buckets for aerial firefighting.

UTair and its subsidiaries have extensive experience in aerial firefighting and search and rescue operations in conjunction with disaster relief throughout the globe. UTair South Africa has been providing aerial fighting operations on the African continent for many years. UTair Europe is a crucial component of aerial firefighting operations in conjunction with EU aerial firefighting programs in different regions of Europe. In 2007 a UTair crew operating an Mi-26 helicopter battled the wildfires that affected Greece, saving forests assets and human settlements on the Peloponnesus, including structures with high cultural and historical value. Each year, UTair helicopters play an important role in containing fires in Russia during the wildfire season.

UTair is the world's largest helicopter operator in terms of fleet size and capacity, with more than 250 helicopters of domestic and foreign production in operation. Utair's wide ranging fleet capabilities and professional crews provide safe, high quality helicopter operations worldwide that rank among the highest degree of complexity in the business. In 2010 UTair helicopter operations will span across Russia and eleven foreign countries.