Definition

A Maintenance Control Centre (MCC) is the central control and data collection point for maintenance at an airline or other aircraft operator.

Description

At most airlines, the MCC operates 24 hours a day to track maintenance discrepancies and inspection status of all aircraft. Other operators, such as companies with large business aviation fleets, might also set up a 24-hour MCC.

The MCC's duties include taking calls from flight crews to record maintenance problems and to assign mechanics to address those problems. If the maintenance issue is minor, the MCC can instruct the flight crew on the proper corrective action and documentation of that corrective action in the aircraft's maintenance logbook. For example, a simple reset of a malfunctioning component might involve pulling a circuit breaker, waiting for a specified time, and then resetting the breaker. 

MCC staff ensure that discrepancies not cleared by mechanics are deferred in accordance with the aircraft's approved Minimum Equipment List (MEL). The MEL specifies the conditions under which an aircraft can fly with certain inoperative components. For example, if a screen on an aircraft's Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS) fails, and that screen is on the first officer's side of the flight deck, the MEL might allow flight as long as the captain is the pilot flying (PF). The failed screen must then be listed as a Deferred Maintenance Item (DMI) or Acceptable Deferred Defect (ADD). Often, an MEL will specify that an aircraft can fly only a specified number of hours before a deferred item is corrected. The MCC will track flight time to make sure the item is corrected before that flight time is exceeded.

Other MCC duties include working closely with scheduling to ensure that aircraft needing certain maintenance or inspections will stop at a maintenance base. If an aircraft requires unscheduled maintenance at an airport that is not a maintenance base, the MCC will coordinate with contract mechanics to complete the required work.