OREANDA-NEWS. Transaero Airlines carried out a special flight on March 6, 2014 from Moscow Domodedovo Airport carrying 100 sports fans with disabilities, including 20 people using wheelchairs, on board a Boeing 777 widebody aircraft. The passengers represented non-profit associations working to assist people with disabilities such as the All Russian Society of Disabled People, the Russian Sport Association for people with disabilities, Russian Disability NGO Perspektiva, Association of Young People with Disabilities Edelweiss and Schastlivy Mir (Russian for “happy world”) Charity Fund. Sports fans from a number of Russian cities were given the opportunity to travel to the world's largest Paralympic competitions in the most comfortable conditions. Transaero crew, trained to serve passengers with disabilities, assisted the passengers during the flight.

The transportation of such a large number of passengers requiring specific in-flight conditions and services was unique and made possible thanks to Transaero's longstanding experience in serving passengers with disabilities. Transaero was the first Russian airline to pay particular attention to issues regarding transport accessibility for people with disabilities. The airline has been implementing its programme, aimed at creating a barrier-free air travel environment, since 2008. The carrier, assisted by the Russian Disability NGO Perspektiva, holds regular training sessions for its employees training them on how to provide high quality customer services to disabled passengers, in line with global standards.

“We arranged this special flight to provide our partners from the various disability organizations with the opportunity to visit Sochi and make this trip enjoyable for them. Within its social policy Transaero Airlines contributes to the development of Paralympic sports and continuously increases air transportation accessibility for travellers with disabilities. I would like to thank all the project's partners and wish wholeheartedly the best of luck to the Russian Paralympic sportsmen in the forthcoming competitions”, said Olga Pleshakova, Transaero Airlines CEO.

“One of the principles of the Paralympic sport is equality. This is exactly what our organization has been working to achieve for people with disabilities for the past 17 years. These Games provide a tool to measure changes in social attitude to people with disabilities. We sincerely hope that the Games will contribute to the elimination of barriers between people with disabilities and people without them in Sochi and across all of Russia”, said Denise Roza, Director of Perspektiva Organization.