On 26 August, UTair ZAO, a subsidiary of the UTair Group, one of Russia’s biggest aviation holding companies opened an aircraft maintenance and repair centre at Ufa International Airport.

The centre will service Antonov An-24, An-26 and An-74 and Yakovlev Yak-42 aircraft and their modifications, and will employ 92 engineers and technicians. Its operations will include aircraft maintenance stations, where a further 64 highly qualified specialists will work. The centre has its own non-destructive testing and technical diagnostics lab and avionics lab, as well as ground support equipment for performing all forms of aircraft maintenance.

‘At Ufa, we have already set up a skills centre for maintenance of foreign aviation equipment, and since 2015 we have doubled the volume of maintenance here. Today is a new stage — we are opening a centre for servicing domestic aircraft. This step will make it possible to increase the volume of regional air carriage from Ufa Airport,’ commented UTair Airlines CEO Andrey Martirosov.

‘I congratulate UTair ZAO on the opening of the aircraft maintenance and repair centre. This means new jobs, new skills and growth for our airport,’ commented Bashkortostan’s Acting Deputy Prime Minister, Raif Abdrakhimov.

‘For many years, the UTair Group has led the way in carriage at Ufa Airport. More than 50 percent of domestic air services do not pass through Moscow, and a third of these are performed by UTair. Our cooperation makes Ufa Airport an important regional hub in the transport corridor between Siberia and the west of the country,’ emphasised Ufa International Airport CEO Alexandr Andreyev.

UTair ZAO is a subsidiary of UTair Airlines, founded in 1997. The company specialises in charter cargo and cargo/passenger services in Russia and abroad, and also operates regular passenger services on regional routes. The unique work done by UTair ZAO includes supporting Arctic expeditions to the North Pole in 2010-2013 and other successful projects in Russia and abroad.