Russia's First Civil Airlines Association Born

The first association of civil airlines, Open Skies Alliance, has been established in Russia. It got a registration paper in late October, reports Viktor Fursov of this association. He spoke up at a round table at the State Civil Aviation Service /the GSGA/ under the Russian Transportation Ministry. It discussed problems of unification of Russian air carriers. "We have formed an alliance of financially independent airlines," said Fursov. "We developed the rules and passed them to the Civil Aviation Service to be used by other airlines while setting up similar structures". Fursov, however, noted that a legal base for such associations has to be created. For that, a special commission should be established for studying the Russian and foreign experience of aviation associations, he believes.