StarAlliance partner Austrian Airlines is the first customer outside the Lufthansa Group, which will be sending airplanes of its Airbus A320 family to Lufthansa Technik Budapest in Hungary. During the next five years five Airbus A321-100/200 and six Airbus A320-200 will be serviced under a new agreement between Austrian Airlines and the Lufthansa Technik Group. The contract encompasses 5-and 10-year struc-tural checks, which will take between 27 to 32 days depending on the work package.

"For us this contract is a further step to offer our portfolio of services to the global aviation market. With 350 specially trained and motivated colleagues we have already returned ten Boeing 737 and six Airbus A320 to Lufthansa to date and will offer the same high quality combined with short turnaround times to our new customer Austrian Airlines", said Peter Ellison, Managing Director of Lufthansa Technik Budapest.

Dr. Walter Bock, head of flight operations, engineering and ground services of Austrian Airlines, adds: "We entrust our aircraft to Lufthansa Technik and know that they will be in highly professional hands."

Following the new contract, which has been won in close co-operation with Lufthansa Technik in Hamburg and Shannon Aerospace, three airplanes will undergo overhaul in Budapest during the 2003/2004 winter season. With the additional flexibility provided by Shannon Aerospace, scheduling or capacity conflicts can be avoided.

Within the worldwide Lufthansa Technik Group of 25 operating companies, Lufthansa Technik Budapest has been established as a "Center of Excellence" for heavy maintenance of Boeing and Airbus narrow bodies like the 737 and the A320 family. The company started its operation in February 2002 with one production line overhauling Boeing 737s and added a second line for Airbus single-aisle jets in November last year. Lufthansa Technik Budapest is a joint venture of Lufthansa Technik (85%) and Malev Hungarian Airlines (15%).