10 October 2008; Kyiv, Ukraine. UIA, the official air carrier of the Ukrainian national football team, will fly the team to Kharkiv to play against Croatia in a vital FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifier.

Ukraine national football team is leaving Kyiv today on a UIA chartered flight to Kharkiv for a match with Croatia held as a part of qualifying rounds for the FIFA World Cup 2010. The long-awaited game, already touted as the most important match for the Ukrainian team in 2008, will start at 8 p.m. on 11th of October at the “Metallist” stadium in Kharkiv.

The team is currently seeded second with 6 points in their group after two confident wins in matches with Belarus (1:0) that took place in Lviv on September 6th and with Kazakhstan (3:1) which took place in Almaty on September 10th.

In the new FIFA World Ranking released two days ago, Ukraine national football team was ranked 19th and, compared to the previous month, rose by seven positions from the previously held 26th spot.

UIA supports the Ukraine national football team within the framework of the five-year cooperation agreement signed with the Football Federation of Ukraine (FFU) in May earlier this year, and will continue to meet the transportation needs of the team through 2012. The airline flies the team on its scheduled routes and charter flights to all exhibition matches and various qualifying games. UIA also handled team transportation for the 2006 World Cup held in Germany when the Ukrainian national football team achieved unprecedented successes.

“UIA is proud to be a long-term partner of the Football Federation of Ukraine and to make a sizeable contribution to the successes of our national football team,” said Yuri Miroshnikov, UIA President. “It is our top priority to make sure the team travel with maximum comfort, are well fed and looked after and are ready to make the up-coming game yet another success for the country. We wish our team best of luck in their game with Croatia.”

Prior to signing the five-year cooperation agreement with FFU, Ukraine International Airlines acted as an official carrier for both the Ukraine national and youth football teams. Within the framework of this extended cooperation, UIA will actively support the national teams and other Federation initiatives, including Euro-2012 to be hosted jointly by Poland and Ukraine.

Press-office of Ukraine International Airlines
Tel/fax: (044) 238-2697
E-mail: press.service@flyuia.com

Ukraine International Airlines is Ukraine’s leading international carrier. Founded in 1992, UIA was one of the first businesses in Ukraine to attract foreign investment.

UIA was the first airline in CIS to introduce Boeing 737 aircraft. Today UIA’s fleet consists of 16 modern Boeing 737 aircrafts of different configurations.

The airline connects Ukraine with nearly 3,000 locations of the world, operating about 350 scheduled flights a week to London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Berlin, Frankfurt, Vienna, Zurich, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon, Helsinki, Dubai, Kuwait, Tbilisi, Pula, Monastir, Dubrovnik, Nice, Odessa, Lviv and Simferopol.
The base airport for UIA is Kiev-Boryspil (KBP).

The shareholdings in Ukraine International Airlines are as follows: State Property Fund of Ukraine – 61.6%, Austrian Airlines – 22.5%, Aer Cap – 6% and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) – 9.9%. Detailed information about UIA is available at www.flyUIA.com