Facility Will Train Pilots And Service The Russian Eurocopter
Fleet
Lutz Bertling, President and CEO of
Eurocopter, Jerome Noulens, Managing Director of Eurocopter Vostok,
and Andrey Martirosov, CEO of UTair, Russia's largest helicopter
operator, Thursday signed a memorandum of agreement to jointly
develop a flight training center in Tyumen, West Siberia, Russia.
This new flight training center will begin operations at the
beginning of 2010, and will allow flight crews and technicians to
be trained locally in Russia to operate Eurocopter helicopters.
This agreement is a new step in the cooperation that Eurocopter
and UTair established several years ago. In 2008, the two companies
decided to create an integrated technical maintenance center in
Tyumen to support the Eurocopter fleet in Russia. This Eurocopter
certified maintenance center will open towards the end of 2009.
“We are glad to further develop the cooperation with our
partner UTair within the framework of this flight training center.
Both our companies have a long experience in flight training
courses for a wide range of helicopters and I am confident that the
combination of both our expertise will be highly beneficial for our
customers”, said Dr. Lutz Bertling, President and CEO of
Eurocopter.
“Acknowledging the utmost importance of flight training in
accordance with international standards, we are very proud to
participate in the creation of this flight training center for
Eurocopter helicopters. This center will facilitate preparation of
the qualified personnel not only for our company, but also for the
other operators in Russia. We are grateful that Eurocopter chose
UTair to be its partner in Russia to establish such a center. We
are convinced that our collaboration will be a major step for both
companies”, said Andrey Martirosov, general director of
UTair.
UTair has been operating Eurocopter helicopters since 2006.
Today, the carrier’s fleet comprises light multipurpose
helicopters such as AS 350 B3s, AS-355 N and BO-105s. They are used
for a wide variety of operations ranging from VIP services,
monitoring of oil and gas pipelines, geologic exploration, photo
and video footage, cargo fling operations to medical missions.
Starting from 2012, Eurocopter’s new product, the EC175
(Above) will also join UTair’s fleet of helicopters. In
2008, UTair became a launching partner for the EC175 with an order
for 15 helicopters, and an option for 15 more.