Russia introduces simplified aerodrome certification procedures

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Doing away with old practices, Russian aviation authorities have introduced simplified aerodrome certification procedures. The old rules required certification of around ten defined airport services engaged in routine operations. According to the new scheme, only three of these services are subject to certification, which is a great relief, a spokesperson for Petrozavodsk Airport explained to Russian Aviation Insider. Petrozavodsk was the first airport to undergo the new certification procedures.

The new procedures are embodied in the Federal Aviation Regulations FAP-286 authorized by the Russian Transport Ministry on September 25, 2015, which replaces the outdated FAP-98.

According to the old rules, an aerodrome was considered airport and had to be certified as such. The certificate received by each airport facility had to be revalidated every three years. “Because of this, almost every year, the airport had an ongoing certification process for one service or another, which resulted in heavy financial expenses,” Petrozavodsk Airport’s general director, Sergey Shtatskiy, comments. The new regulations grant a termless certificate of “aerodrome operator.” “There is one annual inspection, and that’s it. The number of inspections done at the airport has been cut down significantly, but the requirements for airport operations have stayed practically the same,” Shtatskiy emphasized.

Petrozavodsk Airport underwent the FAP-286 certification while still under reconstruction, so it had to certify those facilities already in place, as well as the newly erected ones. At the same time, the airport created Russia’s first complete Aerodrome Operations Manual, which contains a detailed explanation of the operations of each service, job descriptions for airport staff and other documents.

All of Russia’s airports will undergo the new certification procedures when their current certificates expire, the Federal Air Transport Agency said.