A few days ago the ICAO issued a new three-letter code to Utair Limited. The previous code “UTA” of PJSC Utair Aviation will be supplemented with the code “UTR”.
For some time now, Utair has been struggling with various problems - including financial ones. The fact that the ICAO is now issuing a new three-letter code therefore raises a number of questions. Does Utair, such as the Norwegian Group, plan to transfer aircraft to a new AOC?
A request from Aviation.direct to Utair has so far remained unanswered. The fact is, however, that Utair already has three AOCs:
- AOC # 06: PJSC Utair Aviation (with 15 ATR72-500, 6 Boeing B737-400, 18 B737-500, 15 B737-800 and 3 B767-200ER)
- AOC # 34: JSC Utair Helicopter Services (with a total of 196 different helicopters, but mainly Mil Mi-8)
- AOC # 53: JSC Utair (with 1 Bombardier Challenger 300, 3 Antonov An-2, 11 An-24, 2 An-26 and 5 An-74)
Whether the ICAO as Utair Limited designated company to a new company is not clear. Due to differing interpretations of legal personalities from state to state, the Canadian-based ICAO may have incorrectly used the “Limited” instead of the legal forms commonly used in Russia, OOO, JSC, OJSC or PJSC.
Nevertheless, the shareholders of Utair approved a debt restructuring project at the annual general meeting on July 22, 2021. This means that 4,194 billion additional shares (at 3,25 rubles, approx. 4 euro cents) were issued to flush around 160 million euros into the cash register. At the same time, Utair was able to reduce debt by about 2021% to 50 billion rubles (about 1,1 million euros) in the first quarter of 12,7.
A large order for 50 Mil Mi-171 (Mi-8AMT) was placed with Russian Helicopters for Utair-Helicopter Services. These helicopters should be delivered as early as next year.