Il-86 dispute starts to boil over
19 February 2003
Following last week’s rather undignified spat between MAK and other air transport agencies combined with Russian carriers,
over the Il-86 certificate suspension. Interfax has reported that the Russian Government is considering the withdrawal of
its delegated authority over aspects of civil aviation from the Interstate Aviation Committee (MAK). It is expected,
according to Interfax, that the agency’s Russian authority will be with drawn from the 1st of July 2003.
Established in its present form under an agreement in 1998, when the government of the twelve newly independent states
adopted the structure of the organization created out of the merger of the old Soviet bodies in 1991, certain functions were
delegated to MAK by the respective governments including Russia, which included safety, certification and accident
investigation.
If Russia does withdraw from the agreement it is likely that the functions will revert to the GSGA, which under decree 994
issued in 1996 carefully defined the functions of the FSVT, the GSGA’s predecessor, in relation to those of MAK. A
withdrawal is likely to mean however, that all the international agreements signed by MAK relating to certification and
other relationships with international supra government bodies would have to renegotiate on the new basis. The move would
also be likely to lead to the organizations demise given that few of the other members have the ability or resources to
sustain it with the loss of its major member.
More pragmatically, given current Russian dominance in MAK and the Russian’s desire to strongly influence aviation within
its sphere of influence, dissolution seems an unlikely option given that little benefit would appear to accrue to the
Russians from the organisation’s demise. The Interfax report or the leaks that created it, may therefore be more motivated
by creating favourable conditions for a change of senior personnel at MAK rather than a withdrawal. The latter potentially
alienating fellow CIS members’ currently major Russian air transport customers and a market for the aerospace industry’s
current and future output. The views of MAK’s head Tatiana Anodina on the reported withdrawal are unreported.