MOSCOW, Sep 12 (PRIME) — Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has ordered the government to immediately shut down the operations of all airlines that cannot ensure the safety of their flights, the Kremlins press service reported on September 11, as cited by RIA Novosti.
A complex set of measures to halt the activities of airlines that do not meet Russias flight safety standards must be developed by November 15, 2011, the press service said.
The order came following the September 7 crash of a Yak-42 plane in the Yaroslavl Region that killed 43 people on board.
The president also ordered the government to develop and submit to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, draft bills seeking to increase the fines for violations of flight safety rules by December 20.
Among other measures, Medvedev also ordered the government to subsidize local and regional flights as well as leasing out planes that meet the safety necessary requirements by February 1, 2012.
He also instructed the government to work out measures to equip planes with KOSPAS-SARSAT emergency locator transmitters by December 31, 2012.
The government is also looking into the possibility of only clearing airlines with a minimum of five planes the right to operate a maximum of three routes, while airlines with 10 planes of the same type would be allowed to make flights on more than three routes, Kommersant business daily reported on Monday citing a source on the market. According to data from the Federal Air Transport Agency, all Russian airlines except for Aeroflot Russian Airlines, Transaero, Siberia Airlines, UTair, and Urals Airlines, have less than 10 planes of the same type or are operating old planes that are likely to be put out of operation, the daily said.
Sources also told Kommersant that the agency was unlikely to clear airlines operating obsolete Soviet-era planes such as the Yak-40, Yak-42, Tu-134, Tu-154 B, An-24, and An-26.
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