17.11.2011

Dear Customers,

Please note that the amendments to the Russian Use of Airspace rules providing for private flight operations to Russia on flight-plan are de facto not in force as of today. The new modalities were not published in the national AIP. Therefore the current AIP with conventional entry requirements is valid.

For your information we quote the official comms of the Federal Air Transport Agency Rosaviatia dated November 16, 2011:

07.10.2011

Dear Customers,

Please pay attention to the amendments to Federal Rules for Use of Airspace that drastically change the procedures of obtaining Russian permissions and shall be valid from November 17, 2011. For those of you reading Russian here is the link to the official publication of Russian Government Order 743 dated September 5, 2011: “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”

According to the said amendments, permissions for international flights will be issued based on filed flight plan and subject to the valid International Agreements of the Russian Federation within two hours. Acceptance of the flight plan constitutes granted permission, its rejection (within two hours of the filing of the flight plan) – denial of permission.

Reference to international agreements of Russian Federation in practical terms makes filing of an ATC flight plan subject to timely obtained traffic rights if and when they are required under currently valid bilateral air-traffic agreements of Russia. It certainly implies that non-commercial traffic (corporate, private, GA operations etc.) do NOT require any traffic rights.

The text contains explicit prohibition for the authority to request from operators any additional information over that mandatory in an ATC flight plan. It is understood that Russia will pursue the policy of better and more frequent random ramp checks to ensure compliance of operators with current regulations.  

The modality of linking the ATC flight plan with the institution of permission implies that the law-enforcement measures for operating without permit remain intact and unchanged.

The amendments to the Use of Airspace Rules contain a listing of categories of flight operations that still command various additional permit procedures, namely experimental aircraft, state flights, aircraft registered in states without diplomatic relations with Russia and military (state aviation). 

Operating on non-international (Russian-speaking ATC) airways and to non-international (Russian-speaking ATC) airports will still require a formal application to Rosaviatiya along the currently valid bureaucratic lines.

If there are any questions please don’t hesitate to contact our Customer Service: by e-mail cs@stln.aero or by phone +7_(495)_967_94_39.