Verkehrsministerium vorgeschlagen, ausländische Piloten beschäftigen

The Russian Transport Ministry proposed to set a quota of 200 persons for foreign pilots to work in the Russian airlines, – informs the newspaper “Vedomosti”.

The day before the Ministry of Transport has published on its website the amendments to the Air Code and the law on the legal status of foreign citizens in Russia. According to these documents today the foreigners cannot be hired to work on the flights: either as a pilot or even as a flight attendant.

As noted by the Ministry of Transport, the need for amendments was due to the acute shortage of crew commanders in Russia, which cannot be made up quickly. In this case, the proposed quota of 200 people will be set for a period of 5 years, during which the deficit of the Russian pilots will be restored.

According to the edition, the airlines have repeatedly raised the issue of the problems of the crew formation, saying the total deficit is about 1.2 thousand people. In particular, Vitaly Saveliev the General director of “Aeroflot” requested the possibility of hiring foreigners in the fall.

As experts note, the preparation of the pilot training “pilot in command” requires about 5–7 years, and if the statistics in enrollment of civil aviation will remain at the current year rate, by 2017 the number of graduated pilots will reach 1080 people that help cover the shortage of its own personnel.