Ural Airlines will no longer be using the Tu 154M airplanes in the future. This plane will operate its last flight to Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport on October 16, 2011, the airline’s press service reports. Tu 154 aircraft were traditionally the basis of Sverdlovsk Region’s united fleet of vehicles that was later to become Ural Airlines. The first such plane was purchased in 1974. In 1995, the airline bought the first improved Tu 154M. The company kept using four Tu 154M planes over the last few years; these planes were fitted with the most advanced equipment and allowed to operate in

Russia’s copper export plummeted by 73.5% in January-August 2011 compared with January-August 2010; the figure amounted to 83,200 tons, Russia’s Federal Customs Service’s press service reports. The physical volume of nickel export decreased by 41.6% and reached 89,300 tons over the given period. The value of copper shipments declined from $2.15bn in January-August 2010 down to $770.2m a year later; that of nickel plunged from $3.218bn down to $2,29bn. Remarkably, nearly all of copper and nickel shipments were directed to the countries of the far abroad this year.

Jet fuel prices keep going up in Russia. Twenty airports in the country are going to launch price increases ranging between 1.5% and 9% over the next few days. All in all, the price of jet fuel has gone up by nearly 40% since the beginning of the year. This has to do with the fuel shortage, as the market is estimated to be lacking at least 10% to 15% of the amount needed. If RosReserve provided the 180,000 tons of fuel promised by the government, this could solve the problem, but such a decision has not been made yet, Kommersant reports. As for Moscow-based airports, jet fuel prices increased

Ural Airlines keeps improving its online services, so now any visitor to the air carrier’s website can make a free call to the customer support center online and get answers to any questions related to the company’s performance, the airline’s press service reports. The new service makes it possible to contact the company’s information center right from one’s computer using the Call button. All one needs is headphones/speakers and a microphone. A user can press the Call button on any page of Ural Airlines’ website, upon which an automatic connection with the call center employee will be

Avianova stopped operating due to financial and economic problems, Interfax reports. Starting 12:01 AM Moscow time on October 10, 2011, the company swill stop operating due to financial and economic troubles,’ the airline reported earlier. The air carrier announced on Friday that Avianova had rendered its services to 11,926 passengers on October 3-7, 2011; the figure covers all the destinations available to the company. The initial target figure for the period was 27,000 passengers.

An independent expert Evgeny Shkolov was recently elected BOD Chairman of Uralvagonzavod Scientific & Production Corporation. Shkolov thus replaced Deputy Industry & Trade Minister Denis Manturov, the Kremlin website reports. Prior to this new appointment, Evgeny Shkolov was Deputy Minister of the Interior. He was asked to resign after a certification audit. The Internal Affairs Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev explained that some of his deputies, including Shkolov, would get new appointments after the completion of the audit, RIA Novosti says.

Russian Copper Company received a nominee diploma at MINEX Russia 2011, the 7th Mining and Exploration forum and expo. The award is mainly aimed at promoting competition spirit and advertising the companies’ best achievements in the development of Russia’s mineral resource base. Russian Copper Company was nominated as The Investor of the Year, since it is one of the market’s leading companies that makes a lot of investments in the branch. The company was awarded for its large-scale investment in the purchase and development of Mikheevsky and Tominsky ore mining & processing enterprises

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 7, 2011. The amount of air pollutants emitted by Sverdlovsk Region-based industrial enterprises went up in 2010 compared with a year earlier. For one, the chemical companies and those involved in the production of rubber and plastic goods increased their share of emissions by 3.1%, the share of other non-metal mineral products manufacturers soared by 56.5%, the share of cast iron, ferrous alloys, steel, hot- and cold-rolled sheets manufacturers went up by 6.9%, the share of the automobile and machinery makers rose by 15.3%. These data are available from the public

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 7, 2011. Oleg Chupakhin, a research supervisor from the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Ural branch’s Organic Synthesis Institute feels very pessimistic about the future of the Russian science within the walls of Ural Federal University. The academician says the university is simply unable to process all the money directed to science, for one, UFU keeps laying off its scientists on a large scale. ‘So, they set up Ural Federal University and promised enormous funding. However, no one can guarantee that things will work out there. Our Ural State Technical University

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 7, 2011. Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo International Airport rendered its services to 2.54m passengers in the three quarters of 2011, which was 23% better than in the three quarters of 2010. The international passenger traffic rose by 17%, the number of people on domestic flights increased by 23%, the number of those flying around the CIS jumped by 54.6%. 15,060 flight departures were processed, which exceeded the figures for a year earlier by 30.8%. ‘Most of Koltsovo’s passengers are those on domestic flights, including the flights operated within the framework of

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 7, 2011. Under Order No. 62-11-1308/pz-i dated October 6, 2011 of Russia’s Federal Financial Markets Service Ural Federal District Division the issue of Sverdlovsk-Region based EVRAZ Kachkanarsky Ore Mining & Processing Plant’s ordinary registered paperless shares was halted.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 7, 2011. The plans of the French hypermarket Auchan to set up more stores in Yekaterinburg are still unclear. Former Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel announced as early as 2007 that a hypermarket would soon be opened in every district of Yekaterinburg. The area of each of the seven hypermarkets was supposed to have come to 10,000 to 15,000 sq m. ‘Sverdlovsk Region has already obtained the permission of Auchan representatives to put up this number of stores,’ Rossel said at the time. ‘Given the way things stand, I just ask you to trust us. As soon as

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 6, 2011. The reconstruction of Yekaterinburg-based MEGA shopping mall will last for three years, at least, MEGA-Yekaterinburg CEO Lilia Nenasheva announced at a press conference in Yekaterinburg today. ‘The initial reconstruction stages will remain unheeded by the customers. We’ll start with the infrastructure and technical systems upgrades and then we’ll move on to the commercial components,’ she explained. ‘When the renovations are complete, the mall will look different both on the inside and on the outside. Its colors and interior will be changed. For one, at

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 6, 2011. ChTPZ Group representatives are to take part in the 19th Kazakhstan International Oil & Gaz Exhibition (KIOGE) 2011 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, on October 5-8, 2011. About 450 O & G and metallurgical companies from twenty-five different countries are going to join the event; KIOGE 2011 is aimed at presenting the enterprises’ production facilities and sharing advanced technological experience. ChTPZ cooperates closely with Kazakh industrial enterprises and joins KIOGE on a yearly basis.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 6, 2011. The current divisions of Rospotrebnadzor (the state consumer rights agency) inspected fifty-two tourist companies in nine months of 2011 (compared with fifty-four a year earlier). The agency had 9,677 agreements signed by the companies with travelers examined by a board of experts to make sure the agreements comply with the existing regulations, the agency’s press service reports. Violations of the existing regulations were detected among the following companies: a sole trader named S. V. Melikyan, a sole trader named T. S. Antonova (Lady Travel Agency).

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 6, 2011. Starting October 10, 2011, Avianova will no longer operate flights to or from Yekaterinburg-based Koltsovo Airport, the airport’s press service reports. ‘Avianova passengers with tickets for flights to be operated from Koltsovo International Airport are informed that, according to the air carrier’s official announcement, the airline stops operating any flights there from 2:01 AM on October 10, 2011 Yekaterinburg time,’ the airport reports.

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, October 6, 2011. Ural Airlines’ first scheduled international flight bound for Vienna took off in Chelyabinsk, the airline’s press service reports. The solemn launch ceremony was carried out by First Deputy Governor of Chelyabinsk Region Sergey Komyakov, Deputy Director-General of Ural Airlines Alexei Fomin, Chelyabinsk Airport Director-General Vladimir Reunov, and some representatives of the South-Ural Chamber of Commerce & Industry, tour operators, and reporters. Passengers on this flight were offered some nice gifts at the check-in. The region, the air carrier, and

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 5, 2011. ‘If liabilities keep increasing in value, the cost of loans will keep rising as well. The way I feel it, banks will choose a different strategy. Rather than launching a drastic rise in interest rates, they will simply set limits on their loans. So, we are going to see a dramatic drop in the lending portfolio growth dynamics due to these limitations. There will also be a small increase in the interest rates, a very careful one, since the banks have learned from their past experience that this could lead to trouble,’ says MDM Bank’s Chairman Oleg Vyugin at

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 5, 2011. Pipe Metallurgical Company (TMK) had its premium threaded joint casings ТМК FMC inserted in the well-site of Yuzhno-Priobskoye deposit for Gazrpom Neft. The insertion operations were assisted by experts from TMK Premium Service. Inserted in the well-site of Yuzhno-Priobskoye deposit was a production casing of 276 TMK FMC casings produced by Taganrog Metallurgical Plant. This was the first time TMK Premium Service rendered such services to Gazprom Neft.

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 5, 2011. VUZ-Bank recently introduced a new design for its bank cards, to be used on MasterCard Standard cards. The main theme of the new design is the fruit one. The new bank card, featuring oranges, complements the already existing plastic debit cards offered within the Life Classic range that feature nature themes like Fire, Green Leaves, and Raindrops and can be used as a universal legal tender as well as to take money out of ATMs, pay through online terminals, and make purchases over the phone and on the Internet.