November 22, 2012. Governor Evgeny Kuivashev’s initiative on putting the Yekaterinburg EXPO promotion campaign logo on aircraft now came true: Ural Airlines launched its first airplane with the exhibition symbols and a phrase ‘Ekaterinburg World Expo 2020. Candidate City’ on it, the air carrier reports.

This long-term ‘coloring’ of the planes and the fact that Yekaterinburg is mentioned in the phrase is expected to enhance the city awareness on the international arena and to serve as additional publicity for the city.

The Governor is positive that it is essential for the capital of Sverdlovsk Region to present itself to the world.

‘In fact, both the preparation for and the organization of EXPO 2020 if we win this chance will give both the region and Yekaterinburg a powerful development boost, to increase the amount of investments tenfold, and to improve both the business activity and the tourist traffic in the area,’ Kuivashev pointed out.

This is why the fact that the region’s major air carrier Ural Airlines shares this hope and is still willing to be the driving force behind the Mid-Urals’ transportation segment development can hardly be overestimated.

‘We are glad that this statement on our planes supports the Governor of Sverdlovsk Region’s initiative; Mr. Kuivashev is working hard on making Yekaterinburg win the right to host the exhibition. We came to an agreement and considered the possibility of putting this logo on our planes. Now our wings will spread the word around both Russia and the CIS. Our task is to make sure that ‘Ekaterinburg’, the word which is a pronunciation challenge for foreigners, became very familiar, clear, and simple. So when the time comes to vote for the candidate cities, people from other countries will know what the Urals’ capital is,’ says Ural Airlines Deputy DG and Quality Director Alexei Fomin.