Utair Boeing 767-200 VP-BAG landing in Dublin from Damascus
Taken by Tadhg O'Callaghan @tadhg_aviation on Instagram
Utair recently signed a contract with the UN to deploy Irish forces to Syria. This contact which is worth $189000 is in place until the 30th of April 2020. The charter airline will be delivering Irish troops from Dublin to Damascus while supporting United Nations Disengagement Observer effort (UNDOF). This operation is what is keeping the airline above water during these difficult times.
On the 4th of April, Utair Boeing 767-200 registered VP-BAG took off from Moscow Vnukovo Airport en route to Dublin. The aircraft then operated flight UT9036 from Dublin to Damascus, Syria. The Boeing 767 then fly back 4000km to Dublin from Damascus operating flight UT9037 before heading back to Russia.
Utair have two more Boeing 767's making them the largest in their fleet. Both aircraft have remained in Vnukovo Airport since March 20th. All of their aircraft are apart of the Russian VTB Leasing group. This group has recently been approved on a grace period for monthly lease payments of these aircraft.
There is a long history dating back to 1990 when it comes to the Utair group and contracts. However, 50 Russian airlines are on the the current list of UN Secretariat's of registered vendors. Between the fifty of them they won $167.6 million in UN contracts in 2019.
Aviation expenses are one of the greatest costs for international peacekeeping organisations. In 2019, transport expenditure consumed 16.2% of its budget coming out at $978.8 million dollars. Other registered Russian UN vendors are Royal Flight, Nordwind, Redwings Pegas Fly and Nordavia. However, Utair tops the list by terms of value of contracts rendering services worth up to $7.3 million dollars last year. These figures were substantially short of 2018's contract, the Russian carriers were worth a collective of $32.4 million dollars.
The revenue of these UN contracts will not deal with all the airline's losses due to the coronavirus outbreak, however, it will increase the chances of the airline staying around.
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