OREANDA-NEWS. UTair Aviation has become a general partner of 18th Winter Deaflympics and will serve as an official airline for the games.

The Deaflympics, previously the World Games for the Deaf until 2001, are the premier international sporting event for deaf athletes. The Deaflymics are held every four years and have the same status as Olympic and Paralympic Games. Five winter sports are included in the program: ice hockey, alpine skiing, curling, cross country skiing and snowboarding. The 2015 Winter Deaflympics will be hosted in Khanty-Mansiysk. 500 sportsmen from 27 countries are expected to come to Yugra for the games.

President of UTair-Passenger Airlines Oleg Semenov is confident that event will be a success. “The airline has extensive experience transporting athletes and teams,” he said. “UTair has a convenient flight schedule and a broad route network that will allow both Deafympics participants and fans to access and fully enjoy this massive and colorful sporting event.”

“In UTair we found a reliable partner which is well known not only in Yugra, but also in Russia and worldwide,” commented executive director of the 2015 Deaflympics Organizing Committee Spartak Antonenkov. Mr. Antonenkov further invited fans of national teams, winter sports enthusiasts and everybody interested in sports for the deaf to Khanty-Mansiysk to usher in spring sporting season.

The XVIII Deaflympics will take place from March 28 through April 5, 2015.

UTair Aviation ranks among the top three Russian airlines. In 2013 UTair Aviation aircraft transported 9,625,295 passengers and the combined UTair Group fleet transported 10,413,803 passengers. UTair Aviation operates more than 150 fixed wing aircraft and performs flights to 117 destinations in Russia and abroad. The airline maintains its central hub at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow, from which it performs more than 100 flights daily.