Gazpromneft-Aero, operator of the Gazprom Neft aviation refuelling business, together with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) Fuel Quality Pool (IFQP), held the organisation’s VIII Airfield Inspector Training Course in Novosibirsk on 5 — 9 September 2016.
Course participants in 2016 included specialists from Russian and international aviation companies including Aeroflot, Air Berlin, Volga-Dnepr, Yakutia, Red Wings, Belavia, Nizhnevartovskavia, TZK-AERO, the AKKA group of companies, Intek OsOO, Toshkent Xalqaro Aeroporti, and FAUDI Aviation GmbH.
More than 140 Russian and international specialists have completed joint Gazpromneft-Aero—IATA training courses since 2008. The knowledge and insights gained, in international quality standards and aviation refuelling technologies, having then been disseminated throughout their respective organisations, thereby helping to establish industry-wide operating standards.
Gazprom Neft today runs Russia’s most significant aviation refuelling network, comprising 44 directly-owned aviation refuelling facilities. Since 2008 the company has invested more than RUB18.5 billion in the modernisation and development of aviation infrastructure throughout its own facilities, RUB290 million of this being invested in the aviation refuelling complex at Tomachevo International Airport. The company’s facilities at Novosibirsk are one of only four such sites in the world approved by IATA to undertake training in aircraft refuelling and aviation fuel quality control standards.
Participants on the Airfield Inspector Training course studied issues in ensuring international standards in aviation fuel quality, fuel storage technologies, and fuel filtration procedures. Organisers paid particular attention to the operation of centralised refuelling systems, widely used abroad, and the use of modern aircraft refuelling tankers.
Vladimir Yegorov, CEO, Gazpromneft-Aero, commented: “Following the abolition of mandatory state certification of aviation refuelling facilities at Russian airports, responsibility for quality control in aviation refuelling operations now rests with the airlines. Participating in this training course in Novosibirsk gives representatives from Russian airlines the opportunity to gain direct practical insights into IFQP international standards, and to obtain IATA certification for the inspection of aviation refuelling facilities at Russian airports. Implementing international quality standards in aviation refuelling throughout Russia is one of our company’s key priorities. We will continue to develop our offering in terms of practical IATA training. Gazpromneft-Aero plans to invest more than RUB170 million in modernising aviation refuelling facilities in Novosibirsk over the next three years. Our business provides an inclusive forum for the practical training of specialists who will subsequently go on to further disseminate current operational standards throughout their own businesses, in the future, raising the overall safety standards of air carriers throughout the country.”
Peter Westphal, a representative of the IATA IFQP Technical Fuel Group commented: “All of the training participants — technical specialists — are working towards a single common goal: to ensure international standards in aviation refuelling operate throughout the entire world. Gazpromneft-Aero’s unstinting support and collaboration is helping us implement our plans in Russia. Thanks to the IFQP training in Novosibirsk we are seeing improved knowledge of IATA standards among technical specialists from airports throughout the CIS.”
Gazpromneft-Aero is the operator of Gazprom Neft aviation refuelling division. The company has been providing aircraft refuelling services and selling aviation fuel at airports since January 1, 2008. Since December 2008, Gazpromneft Aero has been a strategic partner of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in the field of aviation fuel supply. Gazprom Neft Aero is today the leading aviation refuelling company in the domestic market. The geographic range of the company’s presence abroad includes 170 airports throughout 61 countries worldwide. The company is also developing its collaboration with 80 international carriers. At Gazprom Neft’s initiative, the company’s strategic partnership with IATA will, in 2017, include Russia’s first ever international aviation refuelling forum, to be held in St Petersburg.
The Gazpromneft-Aero Novosibirsk aviation refuelling complex has been fully modernised and automated. Oil-product storage facilities include three tank farms, with a total capacity of approximately 38,000 cubic metres, with six fuel tankers and five fuel-servicing units (dispensers) in use for aircraft refuelling. The complex is equipped with a laboratory, fitted out with state-of-the-art equipment, allowing the physical and chemical characteristics of fuel to be assessed against Russian (GOST) and international (ASTM) standards. A new wastewater treatment facility (for the removal of oil products and mechanical waste) was installed at the complex in 2016. Sales of aviation kerosene reached more than 130,000 tonnes in 1H2016.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is a non-governmental professional organisation with its headquarters in Montreal (Canada) and its European centre in Geneva (Switzerland). The IATA has 101 offices worldwide.
The IATA’s membership includes 265 airlines, together responsible for 94 percent of all international flights.
The Association acts as industry coordinator, representing the industry’s interests in areas including aviation safety, flight operations, tariff policy, technical operations and maintenance, security, refuelling services, the development of international standards in conjunction with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), and more.
