Ural Airlines is to start operating the carrier’s first scheduled flight to Italy on April 27, 2008 using A-320 aircraft’s business class. It will take the passengers 5 hours and 20 minutes to get from Yekaterinburg to the destination point.

‘The local business community has a lot of important ties with the Italian companies. There are five representations of foreign companies and more than ten joint ventures with Italians’ investments operating in Mid-Urals at the moment. Moreover, two Italian giants, Duferco and Stoppani, have shareholdings in Sverdlovsk Region’s major enterprises, while Italian Intesa is one of Yekaterinburg’s most active foreign banks. Besides, 70% of Italian goods imported to Yekaterinburg are related to industrial machinery. Apart from that, the so-called Italian Quarter is about to be put up within the city. From a traveler’s viewpoint, Italy is one of top five countries that interest Russian (and Ural) tourists most,’ the airline’s press officer said to UrBC.

‘Italy and Sverdlovsk Region have been cooperating so intensely that chartered flights cannot meet the passengers’ demands any longer. It’s about time we had a regularly available air connection between the two areas, given especially the fact that the region was chosen by the Italian government as the top priority Russian location in terms of investments,’ says CFO Ural Airlines Kirill Skuratov.