OREANDA-NEWS. UTair Aviation is a proud sponsor of the 3rd International Ugra Ski Marathon which took place on April 11 in Khanty-Mansiysk and was organized by Khanty-Mansiysk regional government and the Bank of Khanty-Mansiysk.

This year nearly 2,000 sportsmen aged from one to ninety from 12 countries took part in the Marathon. Russia was represented by sportsmen coming from more than 33 regions from Saint Petersburg to Khabarovsk region. This year the Ugra Ski Marathon drew exceptional public interest by receiving official designation as the final phase of the prestigious International Marathon series.

Many famed Russian sportsmen joined the marathon, including winners and medalists of Winter Olympic Games, World and European Championships skiers Alexander Legkov, Yevgeny Dementyev, Alexander Zavyalov, Nikolay Zimyatov, Vyacheslav Vedenin, Mikhail Devyartyarov; biathletes Yury Kashkarov, Aleksey Volkov, Svetlana Sleptsova, Olga Vilukhina and many others.

UTair provided air transport for marathon participants and celebrity guests and prepared special prizes for the celebrity sportsmen. During the closing ceremony of the Ugra Ski Marathon, UTair awarded them with golden VIP-level STATUS program loyalty cards.

“Additional bonuses and services granted to holders of VIP STATUS cards will provide our outstanding sportsmen with opportunities for even more comfortable travel on all UTair scheduled flights, as well as additional services at most airports within the UTair network,” said UTair – Passenger Airlines President Oleg Semenov. “We hope that our famed sportsmen will enjoy the privileged level of service UTair provides to its passengers both in the air and on the ground, which in turn will help them in fulfilling ambitious plans and reaching new heights in sports.”

“We are grateful to UTair for many years of fruitful partnership,” said Khanty-Mansiysk regional Cross Country Skiing Federation President Dmitry Mizgulin. “UTair Aviation has one of the largest route networks in Russia and this suits our event map and schedule perfectly. Our partnership with UTair allows us to organize and perform flights to training and main event locations more efficiently. We hope that our partnership will continue to develop in the future.”

UTair has many years of successful experience of cooperation with major sports organizations, including the International Biathlon Union, the Russian Biathlon Union, the VTB United League and the professional teams of the Kontinental Hockey League.
 
STATUS is one of the first frequent flyer programs on the Russian market, and one of the largest loyalty programs in Russia.

The program was launched in 2001 and includes three participation options: STATUS for individual participants, STATUS-Family and STATUS-Business. Advanced VIP and PREMIUM program levels are available both to individual participants and families. The number of active participants in the STATUS program exceeds 617,000. Since the launch of the program, UTair has given out more than 430,000 bonus tickets and provided over 10,000 service class upgrades.