Market Scene : Pilot Wants Just a Piece of Mighty Aeroflot’s Sky : There is only one Soviet airline. Nick Selbakov hopes to change that, even though he’d be starting small.

From the earliest days of air travel in the Soviet Union, this giant nation has had only one commercial airline, state-owned Aeroflot. Nick Selbakov, who has flown for Aeroflot for 23 years, is trying to establish a second one.

“These are different times,” said the 45-year-old Selbakov, justifying his long struggle against the odds. “My government is in a state of flux. Aeroflot’s service is poor. Schedules are seldom kept. My country needs competition to help improve its transportation system.”

He has been trying for two years to get permission to launch a small private airline in the northeasternmost corner of the Soviet Far East, across the Bering Strait from Alaska.

This is rugged country for flying, and that is evident here at Provideniya, whose airport is the gateway to the Soviet Far East and Siberia for travelers from Alaska. The somewhat grandly named Provideniya International Airport has unlighted gravel runways, and its four-story terminal is crumbling from shoddy construction.

The airport restrooms are in another building, separate men’s and women’s facilities, each with three openings in worn wooden boards without toilet seats or toilet paper.

Provideniya, population 6,000, nestled at the end of a fiord flanked by barren Arctic mountains, is a seaport on the Bering Strait, with a Soviet air base. A sign in huge letters on a mountain overlooking the airport greets visitors: “Glory to the KGB Border Guards.” This region at the top of the world is a land of midnight sun during the summer and of total darkness and extreme cold in winter.

Under Selbakov’s plan, he would start modestly, with one American airplane, a single-engine, nine-passenger Cessna-402, and two Soviet planes, both twin turboprops--a 48-passenger AN-24 and an AN-26 cargo plane, “the type of aircraft I have been flying throughout my career,” he said.

Aeroflot has not welcomed the idea of a competing airline, Selbakov said, even one as small-scale as the competition he would offer.

“Aeroflot does not think it is a good idea to have another airline in the U.S.S.R. For me, I think it is an excellent idea. I dream of someday being president of a major private Soviet airline as big as United or American Airlines in America. It is OK to have big dreams now that we have perestroika and, hopefully, to accomplish them.”

As for the party and government bureaucracy, he said, the response has not been encouraging. “So far, the government hasn’t seen fit to acknowledge my application. The Soviet government moves very slowly. Private enterprise is all so new.”

Selbakov has appealed for help to the second secretary of the Communist Party for the Magadan Oblast (region), an area nearly three times as large as California, and to the first secretary of the Communist Party for the Chukotka District of Magadan Oblast, where Provideniya is located.

He has already formed his company under Soviet law. The company is called Raduga, which means “rainbow.” For capital, he is using his own savings and that of friends, including several Aeroflot pilots and flight crew members.

As Selbakov conceives it, Rainbow Airlines will be an international carrier, flying to several places in the Magadan region and to Alaska. It would carry Americans from Kotzebue, Alaska, to Provideniya and on to several cities in the Soviet Far East. It would transport Soviet passengers throughout the Soviet Union’s northeasternmost corner and on to Alaska.

Only one airline now operates regular flights between Alaska and the Soviet Far East--Bering Air, an American carrier based in Nome. Its nine-seat commuter planes fly regular charters on the 235-mile run between Nome and Provideniya, with a passenger load that breaks down to 60% American and 40% Soviet.

One investor in Selbakov’s company is Baker Aviation of Kotzebue, 300 miles northeast of Provideniya across the Bering Strait and Chukchi Sea.

Selbakov was one of several Soviet citizens who visited Kotzebue, a town of 4,000, for three days last summer on an Aeroflot charter, a friendship flight from Provideniya. There he became friends with Baker Aviation and its family management--Marjorie Baker, 55, the president, and her seven children, all of whom are active in the firm.

Baker Aviation was founded in 1962 by Robert Baker, who was killed in a plane crash six years later. His widow, Marjorie, has operated the airline since. Baker Aviation flies passengers, mail, food and supplies to a dozen isolated Alaskan communities not served by roads. Its gross sales last year were $3.5 million.

After hearing of Selbakov’s plan, the Bakers agreed to help him launch Rainbow by leasing him the Cessna he wants. He hopes to buy the two Soviet planes he wants from the Soviet government.

“Many Alaskan and American tourists will want to see this far-away place, unaccessible until just recently,” said Marcy Baker, 30, treasurer of Baker Aviation. “We see a great future for Nick Selbakov’s airline if the Soviet government gives him permission to start it.”

At the U.S.-Soviet summit in Washington last June, it was agreed that the two countries would establish a route for regular Aeroflot flights from Magadan to Anchorage to San Francisco, and for Alaska Airlines flights from Anchorage to Magadan to Khabarovsk.

Next June, Alaska Airlines intends to start regular flights on the route during the summer months, but is awaiting final approval from the Soviet government. Aeroflot has yet to disclose plans for implementing its flights.

The Soviet Far East is not prepared for American tourists. Forget first-class hotels; there isn’t even a second-class hotel in the entire area. In all establishments, the bathrooms are down the hall.

Another hang-up is that the Magadan region is one of the Soviet Union’s closed areas, accessible only to those citizens and foreigners specifically invited by the government.

Yet the eastern gateway to the Soviet Union, via Alaska through the Soviet Far East and Siberia, appears to be on the verge of opening its doors to the world. Airlines will provide the bridge across the Bering Sea.

And Aeroflot pilot Nick Selbakov hopes there will be a Rainbow over that bridge.

A Look at Selbakov’s Big Competitor

History: Civil Aviation Council was founded Feb. 9, 1923, to run Dobrolet airline; renamed Dobroflot in 1930, and name Aeroflot was adopted in 1932.

Fleet: Complete list is still classified, although Aeroflot admits to an international fleet of 200 aircraft. Aeroflot has passenger, freight, and specialist aircraft and helicopters. Signed an agreement this year to lease five Airbus A310-300s, with five more on option.

Employees: More than 400,000.

Number of passengers: 131.6 million in all scheduled service in 1989 and 4.3 million in international flights last year.*Joint operations: The Soviet Union runs 20 joint ventures with airlines and companies in Belgium, Canada, Greece, Ireland, West Germany, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, and other countries.

Airports: In addition to international airports in Moscow, Leningrad, and Kiev, more than a dozen others have been opened to international flights.

* According to the International Air Transport Assn., of which most major airlines are members, Aeroflot carried 82% more passengers in scheduled service than were carried by the next largest member, American Airlines. Aeroflot ranked fifth on the list in number of passengers in international service.