OREANDA-NEWS. April 17, 2012. UTair Aviation subsidiary UTair-Cargo has launched flights to the Barneo sequential ice base and scientific encampment near the North Pole as part of UTair Aviation’s annual program for Arctic development. On demand flights are operated within the contract agreement with the Expedition Center under the auspices of the Russian Geographic Society, reported the press-centre of UTair-Cargo.

Transport operations for research personnel, tourists and cargo are performed with modernized An-74 TK-100 aircraft from Svalbard Airport, Longyear near the town of Longyearbyen, Norway. The program was launched in the end of March and will be held till the end of April.

Flights to the North Pole are operated by a specialized UTair crew trained in high latitude flight operations and experienced in making flights to ice flow locations in the Arctic region.
 
UTair-Cargo has been in operation since 1997 and today manages a fleet of 52 cargo aircraft, including Antonov An-74, An-26 and Аn-2 aircraft of different modifications. UTair-Cargo specializes in charter and cargo transportation in Russia and abroad alongside regular passenger transportation on regional routes.

 Barneo is an annual ice base encampment located on an ice flow in the North Pole active in the month of April, at which time it becomes the main scientific and tourist center in the Arctic. Every year scientists from the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, Institute of Oceanology at the Russian Academy of Science and the US National Research Center (NSF) work at the station.