UTair to sign several agreements with Star Alliance members in near future
MOSCOW. Jan 31 (Interfax) - OJSC UTair Airlines plans to sign several commercial agreements in the near future with airlines involved in the Star Alliance, the Russian company's general director, Andrei Martirosov, told journalists in Moscow on Tuesday.
"We plan to sign code-sharing and interline-agreements in the near future," he said.
However, Martirosov did not identify the final date of UTair's inclusion in the global airline alliance. "Negotiations are still underway. We need to weight up the pros and cons. Accession [to the Star Alliance] is a balance of interests," he said.
It was earlier reported that UTair has been holding negotiations with Germany's Lufthansa for joining the alliance for some time now but one of the conditions for accession is possession of a modern airliner fleet.
Commenting on upgrades to the company's airline fleet, Martirosov said that UTair will receive eight long-haul Boeing-767 airliners from the second-hand market in the near future. "In addition, we are now in negotiations with Boeing and Airbus for acquiring the same number of new Boeing-767s or A-330s," he said, adding that the new planes would replace older aircraft.
UTair Group includes the same-named airline, as well as UTair-Express, UTair-Ukraine, UTair-Cargo, Turukhan, OJSC Nefteyugansky, Vostok, Peru-based Helisur, UTair Europe (Slovakia), UTair South Africa, and UTair India.
The group plans to fly over 10 million passengers in 2012. UTair's aircraft fleet includes 200 units. The company flies 41 Boeing-737 and four Boeing-757 airliners.