Polina joined the Air Transport World team in 2011, covering Russian and the Commonwealth of Independent States. She studied journalism at Moscow State University and worked as a journalist for Russian business and airline publications since 2000. She has previously worked for Russky Telegraf 1997-1998, Russia Journal 1999-2000, the Vremya Novostei newspaper 2000-2001, the Russky Focus business weekly 2001-2004 and the Kompania business weekly in 2004-2005.
Starting as a journalist for Air Transport Observer Magazine in 2005, she had become deputy editor by the time she left in 2014, moving to Germany.
She has also written and edited a number of surveys and editorial on airline, aircraft and travel issues for a number of Russian and international publications.
She lives with her husband, twins, and a dog and cat in Cyprus.
UTair (UT) subsidiary UTair Express (UR) will reduce its Tupolev Tu-134 and Antonov An-24 fleet significantly by 2012, when new federal aviation regulations take effect requiring all Russian aircraft to be equipped with a traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) and an enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS). The regional carrier, formerly known as KomiInterAvia, will reduce its fleet to from 28 Tu-134s to 6-8, and from 25 An-24s to 15 of the type. UR’s fleet also includes two passenger-version An-26 aircraft.
Domestic flights in Russia have decreased 10% over past decade in favor of international flights because achieving profitability on domestic routes is difficult, it was announced at the annual meeting of Russian Assn. of Air Transport Operators (AEVT). Even though the total number of Russian passengers has nearly doubled in the past five years, the country’s 834 flight connections are still small, with airlines linking to only 202 cities. In the last Soviet Union airline schedule in 1992, there were 4,780 connections joining 432 cities via airline routes.
Kurumoch Airport (KUF) in Samara, Russia, will become a part of the Russian conglomerate Renova's subsidiary airport holding company Koltsovo-Invest, which won a tender to manage KUF's renovation and operations. According to the tender rules, Koltsovo-Invest will buy 71.1773% shares of KUF. After completing the renovation program, it will gain permission to buy another 25.0114%. Renova, however, won't get to manage the airside facilities (runway, taxiways, etc.) due to Russian law requiring government ownership and control of airside facilities.
