Rosaviatsia denied reports of tightening requirements for the operation of used foreign aircraft. Earlier, media reports stated that the agency had suspended the flights of three aircraft belonging to charter airlines, citing on the "story of the Boeing 737 MAX crashes."
According to Kommersant, Vladimir Tasun, head of the Association of European Aviation Manufacturers (AEVT), recently wrote a letter to Transport Minister Yevgeny Ditrikh, asking him to monitor Rosaviatsiya's compliance with "air legislation." He believes that there are currently widespread cases of "unlawful denial" of aircraft certification in Russia.
So, Rosaviatsiya suspended the operation of Azur Air's Boeing 777s, then allowing it in with restrictions, as well as two Nordwind aircraft - a Boeing 777, which arrived about a month ago, and an Airbus A330.
The agency itself stated that there are no new requirements for the aircraft. "Rosaviatsia is conducting targeted, systematic work aimed primarily at flight safety, comfortable travel, increasing flight frequency, and ensuring quality service for passengers," a Rosaviatsia spokesperson said, noting that the agency was indeed forced to suspend operations of the Boeing 777 imported by Azur Air, according to RIA Novosti.
"The reason was the identified discrepancies between the aircraft's design and the standard design certified in Russia, which were related to modifications to the aircraft's passenger cabin layout aimed at increasing passenger capacity at the expense of flight comfort," the agency's source said.
Let us recall that earlier it became known that Rosaviatsiya has imposed restrictions on the validity of Nordwind Airlines' air operator certificate.
"On March 25, 2019, by order of the Federal Air Transport Agency, restrictions were imposed on the operator's certificate of the limited liability company Nordwind, in terms of the cancellation of special permits specified in the operational specifications regarding flights under ETOPS rules (extended flight time to an alternate aerodrome of over 60 minutes) on all of the operator's aircraft," the agency's statement read.
At the same time, the airline itself told the TRN portal that Nordwind flights will operate as scheduled.
"The discrepancies identified during the unscheduled inspection were discovered by Nordwind Airlines on February 26, 2019. The airline promptly took action to rectify the discrepancies, and the documents were submitted to the Federal Air Transport Agency on March 7, 2019. Flight times to Caribbean destinations may be slightly increased: flights to Punta Cana within an hour, Cancun within 20 minutes, and Varadero within 30 minutes. Flight safety is the airline's top priority," the carrier's press service explained.
Source: trn-news.ru