Russia’s largest airline Aeroflot has installed new landing gear legs on one of its Boeing 777-300ER airliners 18 months after export of these and other aircraft spare parts to Russia was prohibited by Western sanctions.

The flag carrier reported Aug. 9 that the first in-country replacement for the type was made by Aeroflot Technics, its MRO subsidiary.

Work on the replacement, which took place in Aeroflot Technics’ hanger at Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport, saw the MRO provider install a full set of new legs—one for the nose landing gear and two for the main landing trucks. 

Aeroflot stressed that the replacement was made in strict accordance with the maintenance guide and the aircraft has already been returned to operation. The gear legs on the 777 should be changed every 10 years or every 20,000 flight cycles.

Aeroflot operates 20 777-300ERs and has another two that have been grounded for more than six months, according to Flightradar24 tracking service. Ten of these aircraft were bought out by the carrier from the financial lease from an unnamed Irish lessor in December 2022.

The airline did not disclose from where it had acquired the approximately 14-ft.-long landing gear legs. 

A recent investigation by Russian media outlet Verstka based on nonpublic customs data revealed that Aeroflot had imported aircraft parts valued at $47 million since the beginning of the year, more than any other Russian airline. These included $2.5 million worth of parts by Boeing as well as parts by Honeywell for $7.5 million and for $4.5 million each by Woodward and Safran Nacelles. The report found parts had been shipped by companies based in China and the United Arab Emirates.

Aeroflot Technics reported in March about the replacement of landing gear legs on three Airbus A330s from the parent airline’s fleet.