On the Record With
August W. Henningsen, Chairman of the
Executive Board, Lufthansa Technik
Lufthansa Technik's adoption of the VVIP A380 as its
flagship underscores the growing importance of business aviation to the German
airline's maintenance, repair and overhaul company.
Already the world's largest completion center for executive
and VVIP aircraft— it accounts for about half of them—Lufthansa Technik is
expanding into supporting aircraft in service, while reaching down to include
in its plans smaller aircraft such as the Global Express.
Perhaps only three completion shops in the world can handle
an A380, and Lufthansa Technik aims to win the first contract. "It makes
[economic] sense for there to be perhaps just two centers for the VVIP A380;
maybe only one," says chairman August Henningsen. "Our whole organization is
already involved with the A380," he says, to support the aircraft when it
enters service with Lufthansa, an early launch customer with 15 on order, plus
10 options.
This support, ranging from the Spairlines partnership on
components and parts with Air France (which has 10 A380s on order,
plus four options) to Lufthansa Technik's engineering
knowledge of the aircraft (it is involved in numerous Airbus development
groups) is exactly what VVIP customers will require for their A380s, and what
other completion shops will have a hard time to match.
From top-end innovation in the cabin to round-the-clock
worldwide support, the A380 symbolizes what Lufthansa Technik is putting into
place for all its VIP customers. Innovative cabin technology and new approaches
to aircraft interior design (such as Project U) being promoted as
best-of-the-best for the A380 are directly applicable to all large business
aircraft, Henningsen points out. He wants some of that prestige to draw in
enough BBJs, ACJs and widebody Boeings and Airbuses to keep his shops full.
Partly in response to customers operating Global-size
aircraft in addition to their widebodies, Lufthansa Technik is making selective
investments in completion, refurbishment and maintenance of "smaller" business
jets. It has taken delivery in Hamburg of the first Challenger 850 (a version
of the 50-passenger CRJ200 regional jet) for VIP completion, and will announce
here at NBAA the participation of ExecuJet as it strengthens partnerships in
its Berlin-based Lufthansa Bombardier Aircraft Services (LBAS) completion and
overhaul shop for Bombardier and Learjet aircraft. Lufthansa Technik's
appointment as the preferred completion center for the largest Challenger
850-and-up aircraft means it can invest to achieve economies of scale over the
life of the program.
"We were very pleased to win that contract," says
Henningsen. Deciding factors were cost, short downtime and quality, while
giving Bombardier the chance to assess its capabilities for future programs.
This is the first time a North American manufacturer has entrusted completions
to an overseas center, he pointed out.
Expansion will be cautious and only in selective, strategic
products, says Henningsen. "If you go for everything, the swings in the cycles
are too big." In any case, Lufthansa Technik is sold out for completions for
the rest of this year, and already "in good shape" through 2007, reflecting a
pickup in sales of both Boeing BBJs and Airbus Corporate Jetliners. The shops
currently have on the line two 747s, a BBJ, the first Challenger 850 and an
A319, and another BBJ is on the way.
The company's services, grouped in the Platinet network of
providers, have been extended to cover Challenger 601-size aircraft. The first
customer in the United States recently signed on, Henningsen notes. BizJet
International (a Lufthansa Technik company) of Tulsa, Okla., is the service
provider in the United States, offering maintenance, repair, overhaul and cabin
refurbishment for a wide range of business jets up to the BBJ and ACJ.
