Russia’s S7 Airlines Implements Strange Rule For Pilots Due To Too Many Hard Landings

S7 Airlines, one of Russia’s largest airlines, has just banned its first officers from landing planes at most airports, instead leaving that duty exclusively to captains. The issue seems to come down to too many hard landings, which are causing damage to aircraft. I can’t figure out if this is more of an indictment of the quality of the company’s pilots, or the state of the carrier’s fleet.

S7 Airlines bans first officers from landing at most airports

When you’re on a commercial flight, you’ll typically have a captain and a first officer. While the captain is in charge, both pilots are fully qualified to fly the aircraft, etc. Generally speaking, pilots trade off who flies on each segment — one pilot does the flying, while the other pilot works the radios, reads out checklists, etc. At least that’s how it usually works.

S7 Airlines, one of Russia’s largest airlines (and a member of oneworld until the start of the Russia and Ukraine war), has just implemented a strange new policy for pilots, following a series of hard landing incidents (thanks to aeroTELEGRAPH for flagging this, and Aviatorschina for initially reporting this).

Under the new rules, which are currently in place through October 1, 2026, first officers are only permitted to perform landings at four of the carrier’s largest stations — Irkutsk (IKT), Moscow (DME), Novosibirsk (OVB), and Vladivostok (VVO). At all other airports, only the captain can land the aircraft.

Obviously Russian airlines have had a rough several years in terms of maintaining their fleets. While they’ve historically largely flown Airbus and Boeing aircraft, the sanctions have meant that they can no longer take delivery of new planes, and for that matter, can’t even directly source the aircraft parts they need to maintain those aircraft.

That’s why many Russian airlines have been flying around with planes that are in a questionable state on the safety front. For that matter, many planes are grounded because they can no longer fly — in the case of S7 Airlines, that accounts for roughly one-third of the fleet.

So it seems that the issue at the airline is that they’ve seen a series of hard landings in recent times, to the point that some have even caused damage to jets. With no ability to source the parts needed to fix the planes, they want to do everything they can to keep planes flying… and that includes not letting first officers land.

Is S7 Airlines’ problem the pilots, or the planes?

I have a really hard time making sense of this policy. Obviously experience matters, but whether captain or first officer, it’s rare to see a plane have such a hard landing that the aircraft is damaged.

So one wonders, is the root issue here a lack of pilot experience or skill, or is it the aircraft being in such bad condition that they’re basically falling apart if a landing isn’t perfect? Neither is terribly reassuring, quite frankly.

I suppose on the plus side, since most S7 Airlines flights are to or from one of the above four airports, first officers will still have a lot of landing experience, still performing landings on around half of flights, but just at those airports.

Still, in the long run this doesn’t seem great for pilot training, and for building experience. You want pilots who have experience landing at all kinds of airports in all kinds of conditions, and not just pilots landing at the same four airports over and over. But I suppose when dozens of your planes are grounded due to damage, you’ll take any precaution you can to prevent further damage.

Bottom line

All Russian airlines are in a tough spot right now, though S7 Airlines is taking an unusual precaution, as the airline is temporarily banning first officers from performing landings at all but the carrier’s four largest stations. This is reportedly due to a series of hard landings that have caused aircraft damage, and the airline doesn’t exactly have aircraft or parts to spare.

While there are some airports in the world where airlines have “captain only” landing policies due to how challenging they are, a ban like this is certainly unusual.

What do you make of this S7 Airlines co-pilot landing ban situation?