Ministry of transport plans to change the rules of airlines certification. The officials are intending to divide them into business, regional and long-haul ones and to make different demands for different categories of airlines, Kommersant reports.

Such system is already working in USA. But requirements for small regional carriers in Russia are the same as for large network airlines and it is a great obstacle for development of short-haul transportation inside the country.

The sources in Ministry of Transport and State Duma said, that the Ministry is elaborating amendments to the Federal Aviation Regulations N 11 (FAR-11), which comprise the principles of Air Operator Certificate presentation to the airlines. It is planned to introduce the document for consideration by the government by the end of this year. The amendments assume that the airline’s purposes will be taken into account during the certification (aero taxi, regional airline or long-haul one) along with range and frequency of flights, planned passenger traffic and size of the fleet.

Deputy Director of Duma Transport Committee, Sergey Gavrilov, has confirmed this information explaining that the certification requirements are the same for all the Russian airlines at the moment. It causes additional obligations and costs for small regional carriers. Gavrilov believes that the changes in requirements may create favorable conditions for development of transportation between regions of Russia.

Ministry of Transport added that independent from the purpose of an airline, at present it has to have three aircraft of a single type in its fleet and one aircraft must be constantly grounded as a reserve board. The official believes that it causes additional expenses for business and regional carriers. The separation of airlines into groups should solve this problem, Ministry of Transport believes.