Khanty-Mansiysk – U?air Aviation JSC will select the winner of an open tender on supplies of five turbo-prop regional aircraft at the end of February. A meeting of the tender commission was held in Surgut on January 30.

All packages with financial proposals of tender participants concerning supplies of five jets were opened at the meeting.

Currently specialists of the company are examining technical and financial parameters of the proposals and after that the winner will be declared. Among participants of the second stage of the tender are the Canadian company Bombardier (DASH-8), French-based ATR (ATR-42), the Irish leasing company Magellan (ATR-42) and the Kharkov aviation and production enterprise (An-140).

A meeting of the commission is scheduled for February 25.

As reported earlier, UTair announced an open tender on supplies of five regional aircraft with about 35 to 60 passenger seats each on October 25, 2003.

UTair is the world’s major helicopter operator and one of the largest passenger carriers in Russia.

The airline's fleet consists of 294 aircraft, including 182 helicopters. The airline carried 1.538m passengers in 2003.