Legal Regulation of the Aviation Business in Russia: Finding a Balance between Ensuring Transport Security and Air Transportation Efficiency

The article discusses the trends in the development of legislation regulating the aviation business in the Russian Federation, in particular, theoretical and practical issues related to the efficiency and safety of air transportation, as well as the search for a balance between them. The article reveals the history of forming the concepts «transport security» and «aviation security» in the Soviet and modern Russian legislation. In order to clarify the Russian state authorities` powers distribution in the field of transport security and their consolidation in the current legislation, the authors investigate the features of the powers of these bodies in the historical retrospect from the beginning of the XIX century. The authors critically analyze the implementation of the certain provisions of the Government of the Russian Federation «On the approval of requirements for ensuring transport security, taking into account the safety levels for air transport vehicles», the implementation of which causes significant problems for air transport operators. It is established that the implementation of these provisions is difficult: it will significantly aggravate the existing economic situation of aircraft operators, and in combination with the general negative trends in the world can lead to a possible mass bankruptcy of domestic small and medium-sized airlines. The authors suggest ways to solve the identified problems. In particular, a possible solution in finding a balance between transport safety and the cost-effectiveness of air transportation may be a «transition period», during which the expansion of the requirements under study will affect only new aircraft.