(Source: http://ura.ru/content/svrd)

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law allowing the Russian airlines to hire foreign pilots, the Kremlin press service reports. "The law provides the possibility for foreign citizens to join the flight crew of a civil aircraft owned by Russian legal entity or by individual entrepreneurs, who carry out commercial air transportation, perform aerial works, also in the capacity of the pilot in command," the report says.

The law gives authorizes the government to establish the procedure of admission of a foreign citizen to substitute the position of the aircraft commander in commercial civil aviation. Candidates for a position in the Russian crews will need to provide information from law enforcement agencies of their country; the medical report; information about the flying time (flight hours) and to confirm the Russian proficiency in the required form, if he is going to work on domestic Russian flights. The law sets time for operators in attracting foreign nationals for the position of aircraft commanders in commercial civil aviation until 1 January 2019.

Earlier, the Deputy Minister of Transportation Sergei Aristov said that due to the implementation of this law, Russian airlines will be fully staffed with aircraft commanders within the next five years. "The quality level of foreign pilots will be checked by Rosaviatsiya, but issues related to migration policy will be examined by FMS," the deputy minister said. He specified that as of today the Aeroflot applied for hiring at least 65 PICs.

Speaking about the PIC shortage in domestic companies, the deputy minister noted that it happened during 90s, when passenger traffic fell sharply. That is when there was a massive pilot outflow, when they left for other occupations or retired. "More than 700 highly qualified pilots resigned in that time, but in the mid-2000s passenger flow increased dramatically and led to the deficit," the deputy minister explained. According to him, under the Federal Target Program there was allocated nearly 40 billion rubles and admission to universities for flight crews significantly increased. "Now we graduate 500 pilots, in 2008-2013 we purchased 149 aircrafts and 125 simulators of all aircraft types; we opened two flight school branches that are close to the regional aviation," Mr. Aristov added.