Center-South Airlines (Belgorod) will have to temporarily suspend operations on October 1 from when Russia's civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia has suspended the carrier's air operator certificate.

The carrier has been found to be be offering scheduled services even though its fleet only consists of four instead of eight aircraft with more than 55 seats, a Tu-134 and three SSJ 100/95s. In addition, several quality and safety management irregularities were uncovered during a surprise inspection earlier this month.

Center-South has three months to improve its internal processes. Unless it is able to do so, its air operator certificate will be cancelled by January 1, 2016.