Making Dreams a Reality is LHT Task
And Will be Worth ¤2.6 Billion in 2001

"We are harvesting our heritage," says Lufthansa Technik senior sales of marketing VP Dr. Hans Schmitz of his firm's translation of 40-plus year's of airline customer accommodation and MRO experience into the burgeoning large business jet marketplace.

Hamburg-based LHT outfits BBJ and ACJ interiors, and provides its customers with on-going maintenance support as well.

The five-year old firm expects turnover of some 2.6 billion euros this year, Schmitz told reporters here yesterday. Five years after its establishment by the German airline, the company last year did more work for non-Lufthansa customers than it did for its parent.

Schmitz' target for five years hence is for 60% to 70% of LHT's business to come from outside.

The firm focuses on XXL class jets: the BBJ, ACJ and Fairchild Dornier Envoy 7, although it also outfits such aircraft as the 747 and 777, usually for head-of-state customers, and most often in the Middle East.

"The demands and the dreams of our customers are countless and we try to cope with their dreams," Schmitz says.

Examples include a special indicator to constantly show the direction of Mecca, and onboard freezers allowing hunters to bring their trophies home. LHT has also developed TIOS, a newly certificated (for the BBJ) "Two in One Solution" antenna combining satcom and direct broadcast satellite functions. Developed for a VIP, TIOS may well find it way into the airline market too.

Despite all the custom work, LHT is moving toward more modular systems as XXL class business jets proliferate. "They want to have it all," Schmitz says of his clients, "but they also want to have it maintainable."

By Rich Piellisch