On June 21, 2022, the Association "Airports of Ukraine" of Civil Aviation (AAUCA) and the National Aviation University (NAU) held a joint scientific and practical event - ROUND TABLE and a meeting of the Aviation fuel supply committee -AAUCA profile committee on the topic: "CURRENT PROBLEMS OF FUEL AND FUEL COMPLEXES OF AIRPORTS OF UKRAINE". Considering the state of war and Russian aggression in the country, the meeting was held both online and offline.
The event was attended by more than 50 people (23 offline and 32 online), among whom were representatives of: scientists of the National Aviation University (NAU), the Ministry of Energy, Technical Committee No.38 of the Ministry of Economy, SE "Ukrmetrteststandard", airports and airlines of Ukraine.
The participants were surprised by the absence of representatives of the State Aviation Administration of Ukraine, which is responsible for ensuring aviation safety and regulatory acts of production aviation processes. The explanation for the participants was that some managers promised, others canceled their orders. It is not clear why some people have such a relationship with the leading, industry, public organization, which unites more than 76 enterprises and organizations from 13 countries of the world and is a full member of the International Council of Airports of Europe (ACI-EUROPE). We hope that the specialized heads of the central executive authorities will figure it out and make appropriate decisions for the normal functioning and performance of their duties by the employees of the State Aviation Administration. As an example, the participants of the event wanted to hear answers to the following questions:
- provision of airport infrastructure units with modern regulatory acts of air fuel refueling processes, instead of outdated instruction No.416 from 2006;
- implementation of the procedures for declaration of subjects of the activity of aviation fuel refueling, in accordance with the law No.3007-IX dated 21.03.2023;
- implementation of European Union Directive No.96/67 of October 15, 1996 "On access to the market for ground handling services at Community airports" (this issue has been discussed for more than 5 years).
Despite all the circumstances, a number of important, topical issues were discussed at the meeting, including:
- Today's state of regulatory, legal and technical support of production processes in aviation fuel supply units of Ukrainian airlines. Their compliance with European standards,
- European experience of the rules for ensuring refueling of aircraft at airports. Ways to implement the decarbonization program and the transition to "green" technologies,
- Reformulated fuel (with biofuel) for gas turbines, obtained from domestic raw materials and their technology
- Analysis of specialties, competitiveness and prospects for the development of pre-higher education specialists
- Training and retraining of personnel for the fuel and filling station.
The participants of the event had the opportunity to listen to interesting presentations from their colleagues and actively discuss the current issues of the work of the fuel and filling station.
By prior agreement, representatives of the Polish Airports State Enterprise (PPL) took part in the meeting, who, together with their partners - the fuel company Orlen Aviation, offered to organize a separate meeting to discuss existing problems and further cooperation, as well as opportunities to help Ukrainian airports and enterprises in such a difficult and important period of recovery and transition of the aviation industry to global regulations and standards.
All participants had the opportunity to express their opinions, interact and exchange experiences. The meeting was held in a business and constructive atmosphere, the committee made relevant decisions for further work, namely:
1. Create a working group to work out problematic issues of the fuel and filling station.
2. The working group should prepare a letter of appeal to the Central Committee with a list of existing problems.
3. By prior agreement, familiarize yourself with the work experience and provision of NPA of the State Enterprise "Polish Airports" (PPL) and Orlen Aviation.
4. To support the proposals of the participants regarding the creation of a single department that would train specialists for further work in the fuel and filling station of airlines.
5. To support the proposal of the company DR Energy Group to hold a meeting of a separate section of the committee, which will be devoted to the use of special liquids for de/anti-icing.
We express our sincere gratitude to all participants for their active participation and high level of discussions. We would also like to express our gratitude to the leadership of NAU for providing the opportunity to hold the event in such difficult circumstances.
