Pilots' productivity in Russia

While retrieving the flight hours data from my logbook I remembered that I thought it would be nice to give you a brief review of the exerpt. It could help you to understand such a topic as "How productive are the pilots in the contemporary Russia". I presented the data in these two simple graphs:

1. LOGBOOK DATA: ANNUAL PRODUCTIVITY

The first one is showing hours I have been annualy logging during the past six years. The abrupt fall in 1996 reflects the start of the transitioning period to the new aircraft type (the company commenced flying the type in 1995). Seeing the diagram, you can also imagine the pace at which the company was establishing itself on the tiny niche market for our single Tupolev.

2. FLIGHT CREWS' AVERAGE PRODUCTIVITY IN 2000 BY AIRCRAFT TYPE, BY PROFESSION: KUBAN AIRLINES

The second graph is itself a comparative analysis of flight time averages achieved by the company's employees on each aircraft type, in each category of our flying profession. Sure, all these results look fairly modest, if compared to the numbers of flight hours per year that pilots in many established international carriers can achieve. But I assure you, they are not too bad, if you take into account the following:

I am citing the "Flight International" magazine (28 March-3 April 2000). At the moment it is obviously a dated reading too, but the situation (and the magazine's assessment of it) has hardly changed. Our Kuban Airlines was ranked in the magazine as the #8 among 26 Russia's largest airlines. And so far we hang on.