An Air India Boeing 777-300ER aircraft successfully completed a test flight on Friday after remaining grounded for nearly six years, marking a major milestone for the aviation maintenance sector.
The aircraft took off at around 2 pm and landed at 4 pm after a flight lasting about three hours. The sortie was conducted following extensive repair and maintenance work carried out at the Nagpur Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) facility.
The achievement has been praised by the chairman of AI Engineering Services Limited (AIESL) and Air India, who commended the efforts of the Nagpur MRO team for restoring the aircraft to operational condition.
Flying an aircraft that had remained grounded for such a long period was considered a significant challenge. The test flight was piloted by Captain Arvind Singh and Captain Anny Divya, who earlier made history as India’s youngest commander to captain a Boeing 777.
The aircraft flew on the Nagpur–Ahmedabad route and also completed two to three circuits over Ahmedabad during the test. During the flight, it reached its maximum altitude of 39,000 feet while several technical checks were carried out, including tests of the oxygen release system and other critical onboard systems.
After all checks were completed successfully without any technical issues, the aircraft returned to Nagpur Airport at around 4 pm and was brought back to the AIESL MRO facility.
The aircraft involved was an Air India Boeing 777-300ER with registration VT-ALL. It had arrived at the Nagpur MRO facility in February 2020 for a C-check, a major maintenance procedure.
At that time, two aircraft had been sent to Nagpur for repairs ahead of operations under the Vande Bharat Mission. However, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global supply chains, making it difficult to procure necessary aircraft parts.
As a result, parts from aircraft VT-ALL were used for maintaining other planes, leaving it non-operational. The aircraft remained parked outside the hangar for nearly five years before being moved to another MRO hangar in 2025, where restoration work began.
Of the aircraft’s two engines, one new engine was supplied by Air India, while the second was sourced from another location.
👉 Click here to read the latest Gujarat news on TheLiveAhmedabad.com