On November 2, 2007, the Government of the Russian Federation issued a decree on the creation of the FSE "Airports of the North", as a result of which the small airports of Yakutia received a state-guaranteed source of financing. Today the company unites 31 airports and 2 airfields of Yakutia and Magadan region, scattered 1/5 of the territory of our country, which is 1/3 of Europe.

Airports are located at great distances from each other. The biggest part of them are located beyond the polar circle. At the same time, the population density in this region is very low, which excludes the possibility of using trunk airplanes. Severe climatic and geological conditions make the maintenance of aviation infrastructure an extremely difficult task, but also aviation - an uncontested mode of transport for most of the year. Vadim V. Volkov, Director General of the Federal Airports Airport of the North, told us about the difficulties that the company faces in the process of operating and modernising airports.

Since the establishment of the company, the implementation of a program for the revival and reconstruction of northern airports has begun. According to Vadim Volkov, It is impossible to survive without airports here: "We have 17 ports in the Arctic Circle. Most of the towns on earth can only be reached by the winter road, which opens for 2 months a year. To shut down airports means to doom people to ruin. " To illustrate what Yakutia is, let's just say that in the days of our stay in Yakutsk, and this is the beginning of November, the temperature dropped to a minus 33 degrees Celsius at night. And this is just the south of the Republic of Sakha. But, despite the severity of the climate and many other difficulties, a number of airports are reconstructing runways, taxiways, aprons and passenger terminals. So, within the framework of federal targeted programs, state contracts have been concluded and the reconstruction of the airports of Chokurdah, Sakkyrir, Tiksi and Srednekolymsk is underway. By the end of this year, a positive conclusion is expected on the Neryungri Airport reconstruction project.

In addition, in 2016-2017, the current repair of buildings and structures was carried out, including the construction of a new service and passenger building at Zhigansk Airport and the SDR building, to the amount of 306 million rubles. Growth and production figures, passenger transportation volumes, staff salaries. In order to expand the geography of flights of airlines, work was carried out to ensure the admission of 22 airports to the reception of modern aircraft Bombardier Q300. In 2016-2017, 47 units of special equipment were purchased to provide airports, plus 6 units received free of charge from the Federal Property Management Agency. In due time and in sufficient volume, various technological equipment and spare parts are purchased. As part of the implementation of the All-Russian program "Accessible Environment", in order to provide access for passengers with limited mobility, 9 lifting devices were purchased and sent to the branches in 2016-2017, and another 9 are planned to be purchased by the end of the year. Also, a tactile tape for orientation in the space of blind and visually impaired people.

The management of the enterprise is located 12 km from Yakutsk at the airport "Magan". The airport provides airplane and helicopter flights for the regional centres of Yakutia, and is also a spare aerodrome for flights to the Yakutsk International Airport. Airlines at the northern airfields are mainly used by the An-24, An-26 and L-410, the Bombardier Q300, and Mi-8 helicopters. Almost all airfields with ground runways, which imposes their difficulties on their operation in these climatic conditions. In the spring, airfields suffer from high water, in the summer the strip becomes depleted and also becomes unsuitable for flights. The constant restoration of the airfield infrastructure and its maintenance requires a considerable amount of manpower and resources, and in the absence of roads the delivery of materials and special equipment is complicated and possible only within a short calendar period.

Morning of November 2, at the airport, Magan began with a production meeting, in which the head of the Federal Air Transport Agency Alexander Vasilyevich Neradko took part. The head of the Federal Air Transport Agency thanked the enterprise's employees for their selfless work in these difficult harsh conditions: "The creation of the FSE «Airports of the North» helped preserve the airfields of the region. Moreover, the experience that was obtained by your company was then extended to other regions of the country and other FSEs. The idea of ​​subsidising northern airports is to compensate for the cost and keep the cost of air transportation at an acceptable level. Of course, I want more dynamic growth of wages, new equipment, new infrastructure of airfields. But in civil aviation, the passenger pays for everything. And in the budget now there is no money to increase the content of state enterprises. Therefore, it is necessary to seek a reasonable compromise between the development of airports and curbing the growth of the cost of air transportation. Realising how acute the situation in Yakutia is with transport communications, the Federal Air Transport Agency fully supports all your initiatives to optimise the infrastructure requirements for small airports. "

The main part of the meeting was devoted to optimisation, efficiency and productivity issues. Thus, a new technology to ensure the storage of jet fuel and fuelling aircraft allowed to save about 7 million rubles a year. Installation of metering devices for thermal and electric energy has reduced the cost of their purchase from suppliers by 15-20%. A large-scale program for replacing lighting fixtures for economical LEDs with a long service life is being implemented. Unfortunately, a significant part of the company's expenses falls on measures to ensure transport security, which, for this category of airports in completely isolated settlements, is obviously superfluous. In particular, this concerns the arrangement of perimeter fencing, the construction of patrol roads, the installation of video surveillance systems and much more. In this regard, the company is working to reduce the majority of airports of the threat category and possible consequences in case of acts of unlawful interference in the activities of transport infrastructure facilities from the 4th to the 5th. As early as the beginning of 2015, all FSE airports were classified into 4 categories. To date, 17 airports have been assigned the fourth category, 14 - the fifth, regulatory requirements have been reduced and, as a result, current expenses have been reduced.

One of the main conditions for the successful operation of airports in the Far North is the timely provision of commodity-material values, fuel. During the period 2016-2017, more than 4,600 tons of cargo and 42 pieces of equipment needed for the smooth operation of airports were delivered. In 2018 it is planned to deliver about 2,000 tons of fuel, 500 tons of combined cargo and 7 units of equipment. As a result of the careful selection of suppliers conducted in 2017, the average value of inventories has been reduced by more than 15% compared to 2016.

But the main asset of the enterprise is personnel. Not everyone will be able to work in such harsh conditions, and in winter and in the summer, prepare ground strips to receive aircraft, restore aerodromes after a flood, serve aerodrome equipment and aircraft. To date, the structure of the company employs 1,921 people. The company is pursuing a course aimed at increasing labor productivity, reducing the average number of employees by redistributing the functions of personnel that are losing for natural reasons between the personnel of the units, taking into account compliance with safety requirements. Due to the annual indexation of wages, as well as the measures taken to increase the amount of payment for the combination and payment of quarterly premiums, it is possible to systematically increase the average salary of employees. The company plans to raise the average salary in the enterprise in 2020 to the level of the average salary in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

In addition to the already announced growth of the average wage, the enterprise provides employees with all the guarantees and compensations provided for by the current legislation and the collective agreement. There is material assistance, reimbursed expenses for payment of sanatorium and health vouchers, travel to the place of rest and back is provided. The number of employees who used the northern or air traffic in 2017 increased by more than 30%. Introduced centralised acquisition of travel documents can reduce the financial burden on employees who want to leave on vacation. In 2018, it is planned to provide about 2,000 people with northern and air travel, which includes 1,300 workers and about 700 members of their families.

In 2016, our own training centre was established, which has a license to conduct educational activities on full-time and distance learning for more than 20 training programs, retraining and advanced training for airport experts and Civil Aviation aviation personnel. The creation of the Training Centre allowed to increase the number of trained personnel by 3 times, while the cost of this training was halved. Distance learning, conducted by the training centre, also made it possible to reduce the cost of the student contract with employees. If earlier the training costs consisted of the cost of training, flights, accommodation and averaged 60 thousand rubles per person, then for distance education they are only 2 - 3 thousand rubles.

All this is only part of the large-scale transformations that are taking place today in a harsh region far from comfortable Moscow. 1921 an employee of the company provides operation of 31 airfields in extremely difficult conditions, serving more than half a million passengers and providing more than 7,000 tons of vital cargo. And this is 16.5 thousand take-offs a year. Many experts have given these airfields their entire life. By how passionately and often they uncompromisingly discussed the current issues during the meeting, and then how amicably they celebrated the anniversary of the enterprise in one of the theatres of Yakutsk, we can say with confidence that these people are sincerely rooting for their cause, living the problems of their enterprise, and all together are a united team of like-minded people - a big family called Airports of the North.