Transaero Airlines Undertakes First Charity Flight of Hope

Nov. 20, 2013
Passengers on Flights of Hope will be able to lend a helping hand to children suffering from life-threatening heart, brain and spine diseases by making donations for children supervised by the Life Line Charity Fund.

Moscow, November 20, 2013 - Transaero Airlines flew its first Flight of Hope, a unique project in the Russian aviation sector, on November 16 and 17, 2013. The first charity flight, UN 999/888, took place on the route from Moscow (Vnukovo) to Miami and back.

Passengers on Flights of Hope will be able to lend a helping hand to children suffering from life-threatening heart, brain and spine diseases by making donations for children supervised by the Life Line Charity Fund.

The Flight of Hope project was represented by the Transaero Boeing 747-400 aircraft in a special livery. Its fuselage is painted with dozens of colorful palm-prints of famous people well-known in Russia and abroad. The project is supported by writers, artists, actors, sportsmen, businessmen and others, who left the palm-prints symbolizing helping hands to those who need them.

Olga Pleshakova, CEO Transaero Airlines, and Faina Zakharova, President of Russia's largest Charity Fund Life Line, announced the launch of this project to the public in September this year.

Olga Pleshakova said: "Transaero Airlines has been carrying out social programmes contributing to children's healthcare for many years. The Flight of Hope project invites the passengers to take part in saving the lives of children. All the funds raised will be transferred to the Life Line Charity Fund to finance high-tech surgeries for children."

"We are delighted to carry out the Flight of Hope project in Russia.  It offers each passenger on board this aircraft an opportunity to make a donation to help seriously ill children. It will draw attention of Russian citizens and all people who care to charity issues", said Tatyana Volosozhar and Maksim Trankov, Russian figure skaters and Champions of the world and Europe.

Due to the satellite equipment installed on the aircraft providing Wi-Fi Internet access passengers can make donations through mobile banking terminals or in an sms message. During the Flight of Hope passengers will be invited to take part in an unusual charity draw that will choose a certain seat number of a passenger travelling on this flight. Transaero Airlines will donate to the Life Line Fund the full cost that passenger on this seat paid for the ticket.

The first Flight of Hope proved that Transaero's passengers are truly open-hearted and empathetic. Over 200 passengers made donations to help suffering children. 100,000 rubles were raised during the first flight. In addition to this, Transaero will transfer 50, 000 rubles - the cost of the ticket chosen at the draw.

Transaero foreign partners also took part in this Charity Project. US MRO station Midair USA outfitted the fuselage of the Boeing 747-400 aircraft with palm-prints as an act of charity as their contribution to the project.

The special Flight of Hope aircraft will be operated on the key business and premium leisure routes.

About Transaero Airlines:

Transaero Airlines is the second-largest passenger airline in Russia. Transaero launched its services in November, 1991. Transaero's fleet consists of 101 aircraft, including twenty-four Boeing 747s, fourteen Boeing 777s, fifteen 767s, forty three 737s, three Tupolev Tu-214 and two Tu-204-100C aircraft. Transaero has the largest long-haul fleet in Russia, the CIS and Eastern Europe. It is the only commercial carrier flying Boeing 747 passenger aircraft in the region. According to the German Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Center (JACDEC), Transaero ranks among the top 20 safest carriers in the world. Transaero serves more than 240 routes in Russia, Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

Transaero is the winner of Air Transport World magazine's Airline Market Leadership Award 2012 and has been named the World's Best Improved Airline at the Skytrax 2013 Awards. Transaero was voted the Best Airline in EMEA by Frequent Business Traveler, US online publication.

About Life Line Charity Fund

Life Line is a charity fund for seriously sick children, providing help for children aged up to 17 whose lives are threatened by serious diseases. The fund covers expenses for highly technical surgeries and the acquisition of expensive special treatment tools, which give children considerable life quality improvement as a minimum and absolute recovery at best. So far the Life Line Fund has saved more than 6140 children all over Russia. In total more than $41.9 mln has been raised for surgeries. This was made possible by the donations of dozens of Russian companies and the hundreds of thousands of people involved. 100% of money raised is used to treat children. The fund finances treatment for children all over Russia. More information can be found at www.life-line.ru.