International Labor Migration in Russian Air Companies

In the period 2006–2015 there was a growth of passenger air traffic on international and domestic commercial airlines. Growth frequency and flight geography required airlines to increase workload on pilots and attract new aviation personnel. However, in the whole world and, particular, in Russia, there is a deficit of pilots. The problem of pilots shortage in Russian aviation industry make worse by state measures for development regional airlines. In this case, research identified reasons for migration of qualified flight crews and developed a complex of recommendations, which allows saving the number of pilots in Russian air companies. Poll and in-depth interview with the Russian pilots (October–November 2016) allowed to identify the factors, which influence the pilots’ decision-making process about international labor migration. Additional quantitative analysis allowed supplementing the list of common factors with industryspecific variables, like airlines ranking, work time, flights’ geography, number of companies’ social programs. Finally, measures were proposed, that will help to keep qualified airpersonnel in home airlines.