Russia needs a Ministry of Civil Aviation

Everybody who travels by plane is concerned about the problems of aviation in Russia. Today they are discussing the development of the aviation industry with a focus on inventions of Russian companies, adaption of leading international IT decisions on the Russian market, import substitution in the aviation IT industry, as well as measures for governmental support of import substitution.

Igor Chernyshev, a member of the Federation Council, a former military pilot, thinks that to provide transport security and economic development, it is necessary to develop light aviation. “There should be an agency that is responsible for this entire complex, which is a customer for the industry, which knows how many aircraft we need, which aircraft we need at the current stage of our development. And here we have a big problem. We in the Federation Council have recently listened to the Minister of Trade of the Russian Federation, but for the question of how much and what kind of aircraft were produced in 2015, it was said that it was 40 aircraft, and those 40 aircraft, by and large, today we do not need so much as a country. Today our market in this respect is saturated. And those airplanes that we really need to develop the national aviation for the economic development of the country, these planes are not available.”

According to the senator, there is no answer to the question of who should make orders for the industry, who should pay for their development. “Civil aviation is a major engine of economic development, especially in our country. There is no such state on the map, except for our country, with its climatic conditions, distance, and so on, where aviation is of such vital necessity. We cannot decide anything without aviation, not any issue today. Therefore, we adhere, more and more, to the fact that we have in the Federation advocates for the creation of a Ministry of Civil Aviation, as a body which would act as a customer, as a body that would regulate relations in the civil aviation authority, which may issue the appropriate regulations, and a body that would be ultimately responsible for everything,” Chernyshev believes.

According to him, “the issue of aviation security legislation, without falling into details, is today’s priority. Without the creation of this body, we again come to the fact that each ministry in their field will place commas somewhere, open or close brackets with the release of the legal documents, due to some emergency situation that can happen. That is, such a system, an integrated approach to including aviation security, I emphasize, in particular, because it is one of the directions of the ministry, although it certainly would be a priority, it won’t be the only thing. Still, if we say that our people are organized to fly to other countries and their trips are organized through travel agencies, of course the host country should take full responsibility for what happens there. Accordingly, people should not leave the country on a tourist trip if the other party does not provide safety insurance.”

At the moment, the Ministry of Transport, the Federal Agency of Air Transport, the Federal Service for Control in the Transport Sphere, the Federal Service for State Registration, Land Registry and Cartography, the Minister of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Economic Development, as well as the Association of Operators of Air Transport, the Airport Civil Aviation Association, the Partner of Civil Aviation Fund, the non-commercial partnership of Flight Safety, the Air Community Board, the International Association of Directors of Aviation Enterprises, the United Association of Business Aviation, the Association of Producers of Services for Passengers on transport, the Russian Association of Aviation and Space Insurance Providers, and so on are dealing with the problems of the aviation industry of Russia.