Since 1991, UTair Aviation has been actively involved in providing transport support for UN peacekeeping missions. Under contract from the UN, UTair helicopters have been relied on for transport operations in a variety of countries, including Yugoslavia, Angola, Cambodia, Mozambique, Somali, Western Sahara and the Central African Republic.

After eight successful tenders in 2001-2002 and the extension of a number of contracts, UTair emerged as the largest helicopter transport operator for the United Nations. Currently the company supports transport operations for peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone (Africa), East Timor (Indonesia), Eritrea (Africa), Western Sahara (Africa) and Iraq.

"The UN transport market is rather complicated,” says UTair Aviation General Director Andrey Martirosov. “Western operators consider it too difficult to penetrate and therefore unattractive. And this is not without reason. Before UTair sends a helicopter abroad to complete the final stage of the contract process, the UTair team has a lot of hard, important work to do. There is severe competition, price dumping by unscrupulous operators and the detailed process of writing up a tender agreement.”

According to Victor Bachurin, UTair Deputy General Director for foreign economic activities, successful contract relations with the UN is the touchstone of UTair Aviation’s globally recognized service quality. It also showcases the competitive advantages of Russian-built technology, designed to tackle the widest range of transport issues that the rivals often don’t anticipate.

In November 2000, UTair opened its first representative office in New York in order to further develop collaboration with the UN and ensure the efficiency of coordinating support in line with the UN activities and interests.

In November 2001, UTair General Director Andrey Martirosov took part in events leading up to then Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to the US, during which the outlook for Russian business relations with the UN were discussed.

Global Reach