The Russian company UTair has opened a new aircraft maintenance and repair centre at Ufa International Airport. The center is to enlarge UTair ZAO market and complement the parent company cargo/carrier activities. UTair Airlines CEO Andrey Martirosov says: “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.”

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.