StarAlliance™ carrier bmi awarded a heavy maintenance contract to Lufthansa Technik Philippines (LTP), signifying the carrier’s trust and confidence in the five-year old maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) company. In this agreement, LTP will perform IL- checks on bmi’s three A330s, making BMI the fourth European carrier to entrust its aircraft to LTP for heavy maintenance checks.

“We are honoured to welcome bmi in our growing list of heavy maintenance customers. We value this business relationship and we look forward to developing it further,” said Dr. Andreas Heizner, LTP President and CEO. “Not only more and more European customers are deciding in favour of our services, but also the Asian region itself contributes significantly to our growing overhaul services.

"Whilst this was a difficult decision to make given the distance and location of LTP, we are very confident in the Lufthansa Technik brand and ultimately the quality of product produced. LTP was able to offer bmi a competitive package along with a very positive and proactive approach to meeting all of our requirements and as such we are very happy to entrust our heavy maintenance requirements for the A330 fleet to LTP," said Ian Davies, Director of Engineering for bmi.

bmi joins Lufthansa Technik Philippines` growing Airbus A330/A340 heavy maintenance customer base, which covers Asia, Europe and Africa. Carriers sending ther aircraft to the 110,000 square meter facility at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport include Air Luxor, Air Mauritius, Austrian Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airways, Lufthansa and Philippine Airlines.

Lufthansa Technik Philippines, the joint venture between Germany’s Lufthansa Technik (51%) and Philippine-based MacroAsia Corporation (49%), is considered the “Center of Excellence” for Airbus A330/A340 heavy maintenance within the Luft-hansa Technik Group since it started the overhaul of Airbus widebodies in October 2002. Already in early 2004 a second production line was added and capacities increased accordingly.

Just recently Lufthansa Technik Philippines added heavy maintenance services for the Airbus A320 family aircraft to its capability portfolio and has successfully completed its first heavy maintenance check on an A320 for launch customer Lufthansa. Together with Lufthansa Technical Training Philippines and Lufthansa Technik’s Group subsidiary Shannon Aerospace the company developed the required capabilities and secured certifications from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to conduct heavy maintenance checks for the A320.