The Russian Federation is the largest country in the world. It has a significant number of hard-to-reach areas and territories to which a year-round access is possible only by aircraft. Despite the importance of the theme of Russian transport there aren't many scientific articles on this topic. State economic entities do not often become an object of scientific research. That is why the current theme is actual. This article is devoted to the analysis of the role and place of state economic entities in modern Russian airport industry. As a result of the study, the following tasks were solved: location, existing forms of ownership, organizational types and main types of economic activities of economic entities in Russian airport industry were analyzed; the place of state economic entities in mentioned sphere was identified. In the Russian Federation there are the following main types of state economic entities in airport industry: joint-stock companies, official duty enterprises and state budgetary institutions. There are some differences between those types related on the part of the country. In the Central Russia there are no public joint-stock companies or budgetary institutions; in Russian NorthWest there is a public joint-stock company and budgetary institution; in the south of the country only 10 % of the regions airport economic entities are limited liability companies, but in Central Russia-35 %. In general, most economic entities in modern Russian airport industry are joint-stock companies.