Implementation may prove difficult (425 words)

Published: 3/30/2001

The Russian Government has ordered the Ministry of Transport to start bringing aircraft operation regulations in line with those of Europe, with a particular emphasis on noise regulations. Currently only 4% of Russian aircraft meet ICAO's noise standards, with only 20% of the country's civil aircraft able to be hushed to meet the standards. The assumption is that the tightening of the regulation is an effort on the part of the government to force carriers to look for new aircraft from domestic producers in the medium term. In the short term however, an interesting quandary may emerge. If the rules are applied evenly, those aircraft that do meet the current standards will fly more because there are fewer aircraft as a result of groundings for failure to meet standards. It is however, clear from the statistics generated by Aeroflot and the civil aviation agency the GSGA, that Russian aircraft, even those with modern Russian engines, is unable to sustain the level of availability of Western aircraft. The availability of Western aircraft is however, severely constrained by import duties, so the assumption would be that carriers will simply have to push their fleet's utilization. This in itself poses some problems for operators. As already mentioned Aeroflot have already been scathing of the reliability of their Russian fleet and there are anecdotal reports of incidents of potential aircraft equipment failure due to high levels of operation. Examples of this may be found in the failure of landing gear and hydraulic systems on aircraft such as the Tu-154M, at what appears to be an increasing rate. According to the GSGA the issue of tightening and enforcing the regulations is complicated. Currently a department within the GSGA, the State Control of Flights Safety, provides the official noise ratings for particular aircraft, but this is largely a formality of recording with noise rating set by the aircraft and engine designers. Of the Russian engines available only the PS-90 meets ICAO standards without hushing according to the GSGA's spokesman. The GSGA rather curiously, suggest that the producers would set the noise levels of future aircraft rather than the GSGA, despite their acceptance that Russia as a member of ICAO should implement its standards, they appear not to see themselves as policing the standards. From the GSGA's perspective, it seems the government may have thrown this announcement out with little regard to its implementation with the primary objective of sounding “encouraging” to certain audiences. It seems likely if any enforcement occurs it will be heavily diluted down over a long period.

Article ID: 2453