Aeroflot recruits pilots from the Ministry of Defense and other departments, the relevant information is posted on the airline's website in the vacancies section. The report states that the company is going to retrain military pilots for flights on civilian vessels: Airbus, Boeing and Sukhoi SuperJet. The first to pay attention was RBC.

Among the requirements of Aeroflot for applicants are a higher or secondary education with the qualification "pilot", a certificate of a commercial pilot, knowledge of the English language, a break in flight work for not more than two years, and an average score of at least "good".

The company does not specify how long the training will last and what salaries the hired pilots will receive. Of the other vacancies on the website of Aeroflot, it follows that the commanders of aircraft are ready to pay up to 650,000 rubles.

At Aeroflot, a planned work is being done to staff the flight units schedule, which is not connected with the leakage of personnel or the shortage of the second pilots, the air carrier's spokesman says. Recruitment of pilots from the Ministry of Defense for re-training to civilian aircraft, he called a common practice not only in Russia, but throughout the world. According to a representative of Aeroflot, over the past 10 years, the airline has recruited more than 200 pilots from the Russian Armed Forces. In total, at the end of March, in the Aeroflot group (in addition to the company of the same name, the Rossiya and Pobeda airlines also included 3,969 pilots.

Vitaly Saveliev, General Director of Aeroflot, complained about the deficit of civil pilots last year. The pilots are moving abroad, in particular to Asia, for higher salaries, he said. For the sake of retaining personnel Aeroflot decided to raise salaries for pilots. And to attract new employees, the company began to pay bonuses to pilots who first came to work in Aeroflot or who already worked in the group and left at least three years ago. In addition, all pilots were warned that those who leave the company, will not be taken back until three years later, Saveliev said.

The involvement of former military pilots in commercial transportation is a fairly common practice in some countries, confirms the president of the trade union of the air force Miroslav Boychuk. "For example, in the US military pilots often turn into civil aviation. In Russia in the 1990's - early 2000's a lot of military pilots were leaving for the airlines. According to our estimates, out of 14,800 pilots in the state of Russian airlines, approximately 1,500 are retrained military men, "Boychuk said.

Now, according to him, the outflow of military pilots is minimal, as the working conditions for them have improved significantly. Civil pilots still receive much more, but the military has many of its benefits - increased pensions, military mortgages, etc., explains Boychuk.

According to the expert, the preparation of a civilian pilot costs from 3.5 million to 4.5 million rubles. - this is the cost of training a graduate of a flight school with a certificate of a commercial pilot. Then the airlines at their own expense prepare the graduate for flights on a particular type of aircraft, says Boychuk.

Aeroflot is the largest air carrier in Russia. Its main shareholder is Rosimushchestvo with 51.2% stake, 34.8% from institutional investors, 6.1% to natural persons, 3.3% to Rostekh and 0.1% to Aeroflot management. Another 4.8% bought RFPI and Arab funds, Vedomosti learned in May.