OREANDA-NEWS. April 08, 2015. UTair Aviation and Vnukovo International Airport have arranged a tour of the airport for the young patients of the Dima Rogachev Centre of Pediatric Hematology and the Russian Children’s Clinical Hospital. The tour was co-organized by Gift of Life charity fund.

Representatives of UTair and Vnukovo met the young visitors near the UTair check-in desks located in the airport departure area. After a welcome speech and a brief introduction to the airport, the tour group proceeded to the domestic departures hall.

Through glass walls of Terminal A the children had an excellent view of activity on the apron: towing of aircraft, fuelling and anti-icing operations. The children and accompanying adults watched closely as aircraft were serviced.

Yet the most exciting part of the trip was still ahead. Guests entered the apron through the Briefing, an area restricted to common passengers where aircrews prepare for the upcoming flights. A short trip on an apron bus took the children to the highlight of the trip: a tour of one of UTair flagships, a Boeing 767-200 aircraft in economy and business class configuration. At the end of the trip patients of Gift of Life fund were given souvenirs from Vnukovo airport.

“Each of young participants gets to fly during their treatment, so their lively interest in aviation is natural: boys want to see the cockpit, while girls like to listen about the job of a flight attendant,” said UTair-Passenger Airlines President Oleg Semenov. “We are glad that we could cheer children up by telling them about our aircraft, about aviation history and the advanced ground handling technologies we use and by letting them to sit in the pilot’s chair. I’m sure that the whole group has joined the ranks of aviation enthusiasts.”

“We use every opportunity we have to comfort and distract the children from their difficult treatment, so trips like these are always welcomed with a wave of enthusiasm,” said Gift of Life director Yekaterina Chistyakova. “Positive emotions are essential for recovery of our patients, and we are grateful to everyone who brings joy to the children.”

The Gift of Life fund has been one of the leading UTair partners for social responsibility for many years. Since engaging in cooperation, more than 1,500 children and their parents have flown at special rates to receive treatment at medical facilities. In 2014 alone UTair transported Gift of Life fund patients and their chaperones from Fergana, Makhachkala, Mineralnye Vody, Yoshkar-Ola, Vladikavkaz, Kurgan, Nizhnevartovsk, Dushanbe, Novosibirsk, Nalchik, Magas, Belgorod, Ulyanovsk and Lviv. 

Vnukovo International Airport is one of the largest air transport hubs in Russia. The airport services over 160,000 domestic and international flights every year. The route network available through the airport covers the entire territory of Russia as well as destinations in the CIS, Europe, Asia, Africa and in North America.

Thanks to its easy transport accessibility, Vnukovo International Airport stands out among airports of Moscow Air Transport Hub. Vnukovo Airport bi-level driveway is connected to the Kiev and Borovsk highways via expressways, while a unique underground Aeroexpress railway station is located directly under the Terminal A.

Vnukovo airfield offers two modern 3,500 and 3,060 meter long runways. The airfield capacity allows 58 landing/take-off cycles per hour. The premises of Vnukovo-1 include two passenger terminals: a new 270,000 m2 combined international and domestic passenger Terminal A with a capacity of over 30 mln passengers per year, and a dedicated 25,000 m2 international Terminal B with an annual capacity of up to 4 mln passengers.

UTair Aviation is the core enterprise of UTair Group consisting of companies performing aircraft operations with fixed and rotary wing aircraft as well as enterprises offering MRO, personnel training, flight services and air transportation sales services. The Group includes UTair-Express, UTair-Helicopter services, Turuhan, Vostok Airlines, Helisur, UTair Europe, UTair South Africa, UTair India, TS-Technik, UTair-Engineering, Ural Aviation Services, UTG and other enterprises. In 2014 UTair Group aircraft transported 11,204,598 passengers to more than 110 destinations, including 50 unique destinations.

The Gift of Life Charity Fund was founded in 2006 by actresses Dina Korzun and Chulpan Khamatova. Fund objectives are focused on raising funds for the treatment, cure and rehabilitation of children diagnosed with oncologic and hematologic diseases, providing help to oncologic and hematologic hospitals for children and young adults, drawing public attention to problems of children with diseases, aiding the development of voluntary blood donation, providing social and psychological help to children with diseases and assisting groups of volunteers working in partnership with children's oncologic hospitals.