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#19 - JRL 2006-56 - JRL Home
Aviation crisis a national security threat -- Russian minister

MOSCOW, March 6 (RIA Novosti) - A crisis in the Russian aviation industry poses a threat to national security, the transportation minister said Monday.

"The country has approached the line where the crisis in the air industry has become a threat to Russia's security," Igor Levitin told a meeting of top officials from the Federal Air Transportation Agency.

Agency head Alexander Yurchik said only 46% of the 5,500 Russian aircraft were fit to fly.

"Due to low rates of replenishment, Russian air companies own only 43 domestically produced new generation aircraft," said Yurchik. "This situation worries us."

The official said the civil air fleet had received 17 Russian-made planes in 2005, six of which were put into operation through different kinds of state support.

Yurchik attributed the deterioration on the market of international air traffic to the imposition of restrictions on the use of outdated aircraft, which he said encouraged the import of more than 30 foreign-made aircraft in 2005 regardless of high customs duties.

He said foreign companies had carried 3.6 million passengers from Russian airports in 2005, or 31.6% of the total on international routes.

According to Yurchik, only 35% out of 1,900 licenses for scheduled air traffic in Russia were used in summer 2005, and 23% in winter.