OREANDA-NEWS. October 24, 2011. Expert RA Rating Agency , Russian's first and largest independent rating agency, has raised its rating for UTair Aviation’s corporate management, ranking it at level 6+ for “advanced corporate management practice”.

The Agency’s official report stated that the level demonstrates UTair has low risks in corporate management and conforms to Russian legislation in the sphere of corporate management. Furthermore, the report noted the high professional performance of activities at the executive level of the airline, a soundly developed practice for disclosure of non-financial information and quality organization for the annual shareholder meeting among the factors that have had positive effects on the growth of UTair’s rating.

Analysts at Expert RA have also included the public disclosure of the principal shareholder of UTair in December 2010 among the positive factors behind the ratings upgrade. In addition, the rating agency noted an increase in the overall discipline of information disclosure, including the practice of publishing the biannual consolidated financial statements.

UTair is the number one helicopter operator in the world in terms of capacity and fleet size, operating more than 330 helicopters of domestic and foreign production.

The airline is among the top-three leading passenger airlines in Russia, Eastern Europe, Baltic and CIS countries. In 2011, the company's aircraft will carry over 7 million passengers.