The aircraft were leased from the Western Siberian Leasing Company. They are to start operations in coming August, when the air carrier's flying and ground crews will have completed their conversion to the type. Yamal's L-410 shall operate out of Novy Urengoi on commuter services.

Krasnoyarsk-based KrasAvia will become another new operator of L-410UVP-E20s in the near future. Earlier this year, the carrier issued tenders to leasing companies for five new L-410UVP-E20 aircraft – three in 2012 and two in early 2013. The financial leasing agreement for the first three L-410UVP-E20s for KrasAvia was awarded to the State Transport Leasing Company.

The first L-410UVP-E20 (c/n 2812, temporary reg. OK-SLZ) had been prepared for delivery in early June 2012. Its arrival to Krasnoyarsk's Yemelyanovo airport took place on 18 June. Two more aircraft (c/n 2813 and 2814, temporary reg. OK-ODJ and OK-ODS) are due in Krasnoyarsk in July. They were undergoing their acceptance trials in Kunovice, with their departure slated for 24 June.

KrasAvia's new L-410s are supposed to enter operation in August or September upon completion of the conversion of the flying and ground crews and issuance of the operator's certificate. The planes will fly services from the city of Krasnoyarsk throughout the Krasnoyarsk Territory and, possibly, to neighbouring regions.

Following a long break, the deliveries of new L-410s to Russia resumed in 2009, with two newly-built L-410UVP-E20s were commissioned by Russian carrier UTair-Express into its aircraft fleet. The Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky Air Company took delivery of three L-410UVP-E20s in 2010. In addition, three new aircraft of the type were received by the civil aviation flying school in Sasovo in 2009 through 2011 and seven planes were received by the Russian Defence Ministry since 2011, including three in February and March of this year.

LET has run production of the L-410 since 1971. Over 1,100 aircraft have been made to date, of which in excess of 400 remain in service worldwide, according to the manufacturer. During the 1970s and 1980s, the average output rate exceeded 50 units per annum, but the political change in Eastern Europe on the verge of the 1990s and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union, a major customer for the type, resulted in a sharp decline in demand. As a consequence, two to five aircraft would leave the assembly shop in Kunovice in the '90s and none during 2000 and 2003 through 2005 whatsoever.

The situation began to improve in the later 2000s. Privately-owned Czech company PAMCO bought LET in September 2005, and Russia's Ural Mining and Metallurgical Company (UMMC) acquired 51% of its stock in June 2008. UMMC's assuming control of the Kunovice-based aircraft plant has borne fruit. The output and deliveries of the company's main product, the L-410UVP-E20 aircraft, picked up in 2009, with the plane being certificated in 2005 by EASA and the aviation authorities of the Czech Republic, Russia, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Indonesia, Cuba, the Philippines and Chile and cleared for operation in a number of African, Asian and Latin American nations.

The growth of the output of new L-410s in Kunovice kicked off in the late 2000s. While the company built four aircraft in 2007 and 2008, it churned out as many as seven in 2009. Of the eight L-410UVP-E20s manufactured in 2010, three were headed to Russia and two were procured by Brazilian company NOAR, with the Slovak Air Force, Bulgarian airline Heli Air Services and French Guyana's Air Guyane Express buying one aircraft each.

The manufacturer wrapped up 2011 by having delivered 12 new L-410UVP-E20s, of which eight had been made for Russian operators, one for a Kazakh customer, two for Air Guyane Express and one for the Djibouti Air Force.

Aircraft Industries is intent on ramping up the L-410 production. According to the manufacturer, 13 aircraft are slated for delivery this year, 16 in 2013 and 20 in 2014, and the annual output rate is to reach 24 aircraft starting from 2015.