Flying on parole – Newspaper Kommersant No. 189 (7390) dated 10/12/2022

The aviation industry is waiting for the third week to confirm its ability to receive a deferment from the draft of employees. According to the head of S7 Tatyana Fileva, so far it has been possible to convince the military registration and enlistment offices not to take away valuable specialists. At the same time, according to Kommersant, all airlines continue to receive summons en masse. Sources of “Kommersant” emphasize that without an official decision of the Ministry of Defense, they have no guarantees of retaining key personnel.

According to Kommersant, airline pilots are not yet en masse taken to military units, but nervousness is growing in the industry. The Ministry of Transport sent a request to the Ministry of Defense two weeks ago to provide armor for key civil aviation employees, but an official decision on granting a delay has not yet been approved. A number of Kommersant’s interlocutors claim that such an approach is “agreed at the government level” and is awaiting a decision from the Ministry of Defense in the near future, but this has not been officially confirmed.

During this time, Kommersant became aware of only one case of sending an air pilot for military training as part of mobilization: we are talking about an Aeroflot employee with a military registration specialty “sapper”, several sources in the flight community told Kommersant. At the same time, as a source close to the group told Kommersant, the number of subpoenas for all employees of the group, including crews, is “more than a hundred.” He was unable to clarify whether the issue was that the military registration and enlistment offices notified the personnel departments, or the employees told the management that they had received the summons. Formally, if the military commissariat notifies the personnel department, the employee should be removed from work, another interlocutor in the industry told Kommersant.

In practice, as explained by several other airlines, summonses come to employees at home, and those who could not personally sign for receipt decide to take a vacation, sick leave or go to remote work. According to Kommersant, from a few dozen to hundreds of people were able to leave the country while waiting for official confirmation of the reservation. In addition, Kommersant is aware of recent cases when the border service did not allow crew members of international flights to cross the border, although some companies stopped using pilots and flight attendants under 35 years old.

At the same time, one of the airport holdings noted that their key employees who do not have a reservation also receive summonses, but not so massively and “the severity of the situation subsided.” Airports and some airlines reported that in some cases, after receiving a summons, companies send a written justification to the military registration and enlistment office, according to which this or that employee is critical for the continuous functioning of the enterprise. But Kommersant’s interlocutors emphasize that such a certificate does not give any guarantees.

The Aeroflot group and other airlines declined to comment officially. At the same time, on October 11, the head of S7, Tatyana Fileva, stated at the Woman Summit forum that “highly qualified personnel (engineers, pilots, managers) are not actually called up, or we can explain their value” (quote from Interfax). “We write letters, we explain the value of professions, and, in general, people on the ground in the military registration and enlistment offices, thank God, are adequate, and they understand that, for example, some specialist needs to be taught for years. That is, at the moment, indeed, we are still a strategic enterprise of a continuous cycle, we do not have reservations for the enterprise, nevertheless they hear us, ”she said. According to the interlocutor of “Kommersant” in the airline, we are talking about “all aviation personnel.” “It is not obvious to everyone that this training of the same flight attendants or representatives on the platform takes from six months, their work requires constant maintenance of skills and updating of tolerances,” the source at S7 added.

In addition, the head of S7, during her speech, reported on the stress factor for aviation personnel. “We are also thinking of specifically working with this in order to maintain flight safety,” added Ms. Fileva.

Tension in the flight crew really persists, says Aeroflot pilot Andrey Litvinov, but it is connected not so much with mobilization as with fears of layoffs against the backdrop of a reduction in the geography of flights. “The Aeroflot flight complex is getting rid of age pilots over 55 through impassable exams and checks, this causes much more stress in the state today,” he says. Calling civil aviation pilots into military transport, according to him, is not rational, since they will need at least six months of retraining.

Aigul Abdullina