Mumbai: In a significant development towards self-sustenance in aircraft maintenance, national air-carrier Air India has now become only the third airline in Asia to acquire the capability of carrying out a 'C check' on its Boeing-777 aircraft.

"We have successfully carried out the 'C check' on two of our B-777 aircraft and work on the third one is expected to be completed within a month," National Aviation Company of India Ltd (NACIL) SBU-head (engineering), KM Unni informed the media.

NACIL is the holding company of Air India and the erstwhile Indian Airlines.

Earlier, such aircraft would have to be sent overseas for such checks, resulting in a huge cost to the company. According to Unni, an in-house 'C check' will result in savings of Rs15-20 crore."

NACIL, at present, has 15 B-777 aircraft in its fleet and would add seven more this year, he said.

Three types of checks are mandatory on B-777 aircraft. These include 'Check 4A', which is to be performed every 2,000 hours or 300 calendar days, 'Check C', which is to be performed every 7,500 hours or 750 calendar days and 'Check D', which is to be performed every 30,000 hours or 3,000 calendar days.

"By undertaking the `C check' in-house, we will not have to fly the aircraft to foreign MROs (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) for the 'C check' and hence there will be a substantial saving on fuel and other costs," Unni said.

Air India recently received approvals from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to carry out 'C check' in-house.

"With aviation MROs in huge demand and many airlines setting up maintenance facilities, we hope to garner a major share of the MRO business over a period of time," Unni said.

 The national air-carrier has also acquired the capability of replacing all landing gears on a B- 777-200 ER aircraft and recently carried out such a replacement on a dry leased aircraft.

Following the successful `C check' Air India is now planning to apply for a Federal Aviation Administration and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification.