Russia’s Aeroflot pays $100 million to sponsor 2014 Winter Games in Sochi

Russia’s Aeroflot to sponsor 2014 Sochi Olympics

MOSCOW — Russian airline Aeroflot has signed up as a domestic sponsor of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi in a deal worth more than $100 million.

The carrier becomes the fifth top-tier sponsor of the games, along with telecommunication firms Rostelecom and Megafon, oil and gas company Rosneft and lender Sberbank.

Sochi organizers so far have raised more than $650 million from sponsorship this year despite the global economic downturn.

Aeroflot says Wednesday it intends to introduce a series of new flights to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, including direct routes from some European points.

The agreement was signed by Aeroflot’s director general Vitaly Savelyev and Sochi 2014 President and CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko at the Moscow International Air and Space Show.