OREANDA-NEWS. December 16, 2010. This is the first year in which Ural Airlines has carried its 1 500 000th passenger.

The airline's specialists had figured out that the milestone passenger would check in for the morning flight from Ekaterinburg to St. Petersburg on 18 November. A few minutes before the boarding, the lucky passenger's name became known. It was Nadezhda Petrova, a design engineer of the Ural Instrument-Engineering Plant.

"It came as a complete surprise," confessed Nadezhda. "I had never won anything before, so it's a double pleasure to have become the 1 500 000th passenger".

The gift Nadezhda received from Ural Airlines is a flight certificate for a journey from Ekaterinburg to Barcelona and back.

"Although Ural Airlines has grown into a national-level carrier and carries out a big number of flights from cities other than Ekaterinburg, such as Moscow, Novosibirsk, Kazan, Krasnodar, Irkutsk, Samara, we are very glad that it was at Ekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport that our 1.5-millionth passenger checked in,""In this year we observe positive dynamics: the passenger flow growth rate amounts to 25 percent,  and the 1 500 000th passenger of Ural Airlines is a clear sign that the industry has come out of the recession". noted Marianna Galagura, the airline's head of international sales.

Upon the completion of the ceremony, the passengers of the Ekaterinburg-St. Petersburg flight were invited for a glass of champagne.