President Dmitry Medvedev demanded a rapid reduction in the number of domestic airlines and said Russia may have to buy foreign aircraft to improve safety.
He made the comments after a plane crash yesterday killed 43 people, including a top ice hockey team.
"The government has to take a very tough decision. We cannot go on like this," the president said as he inspected the wreckage of the Yak-42 passenger plane which slammed into a river bank near the city of Yaroslavl.
Acknowledging there were "big problems" with Russia's safety record, Mr Medvedev said: "The number of air companies must be radically reduced and we need to do it very quickly."
Looking sombre in a black suit after arriving from Moscow with the transport and emergencies ministers, Mr Medvedev said the government should help revive the civil aviation fleet and improve training and pay for flight crews.
"The cost of human life is greater than any other concerns, including support for national producers," he said after laying flowers at the charred wreckage of the plane, which had been carrying the Lokomotiv Yaroslavl ice hockey team.
"We must support our own people. If we are unable to sort it out, we must buy foreign aircraft. I am giving the government an order and they will have to find the money. It will be a big programme."
Mr Medvedev did not give details. His remarks could herald a shake-up of Russian aviation with the aim of improving a safety record widely regarded in Russia and abroad as dire.
Many private air companies have been formed in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 but many rely heavily on Soviet-era fleets. Mr Medvedev acknowledged that previous efforts to improve safety had been unsuccessful.
He visited the scene of the crash in a quiet village by the River Volga before attending a political conference, as planned, in nearby Yaroslavl, about 250km north of Moscow.
Emergency workers quoted by Russian news agencies said they were still searching the waters of the Volga River where the plane crashed. Two people survived but were in a grave condition.
The one player who survived was Alexander Galimov, who hospital doctors said had burns over 90 per cent of his body. The other survivor was one of the eight crew.
The global policy forum was taking place in the stadium where Lokomotiv play, and which has temporarily become a shrine to the successful and popular team.
Many fans flocked to the stadium soon after the crash and left team scarves and flowers beside the stadium wall. Candles flickered and some fans wept. Others chanted the names of the players.
Only one of the 37 players and team officials on board survived, reviving memories of the Munich plane crash in 1958 which killed many of Manchester United's players.
"Lokomotiv fans are grieving, the whole country is grieving," Mr Medvedev said.
International Ice Hockey Federation President Rene Fasel sent his condolences from the global ice hockey community and Russia's Kommersant-FM radio station said players from other hockey teams were offering to help rebuild the team.
Lokomotiv's squad includes players and coaches from several countries, among them Czech Republic, Slovakia, Sweden, Germany and Canada.
Witnesses including fishermen on the Volga River said they heard loud bangs as the plane crashed into the ground, bursting into flames, soon after take off.
Russian investigators said they believed the crash was caused either by faulty equipment or pilot error, although weather conditions were excellent. The team had been on its way to a match in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.
The crash is the third in Russia with a toll in the dozens in less than two years . In June a Tupolev Tu-134 jet crashed while trying to land in fog in the northern Russian city of Petrozavodsk, killing 45 people.
In April 2010, Polish president Lech Kaczynski's Russian-built plane crashed near the western city of Smolensk in a thick fog, killing him and all 95 others on board.
An Antonov An-12 cargo plane crashed in August in Russia's Far East, killing 11, and an An-12 crash in Siberia in July killed seven.
Russia's transport industry also came under scrutiny in July after an overcrowded riverboat sank in the Volga, killing 122 people in a crash widely blamed on negligence and corruption leading to safety violations.
The Yak-42 is a three-engine mid-range jet that entered service in 1980 and can carry 120 passengers. The most recent fatal Yak-42 crash occurred in 2003, when a Ukrainian-operated craft crashed while landing in fog in Turkey, killing 75 people including Spanish troops returning from Afghanistan.
Reuters