Lufthansa Technik AG continued on its growth path in the past financial year and closed 2019 with record revenue and earnings. Revenue rose by 13 percent to EUR 6.9 billion. Earnings before interest and taxes (adjusted EBIT) grew by around eleven percent to EUR 493 million. The extent of the effects of the worldwide aviation crisis affecting Lufthansa Technik cannot yet be concretely foreseen, but the impact is already massive. 

Dr. Johannes Bussmann, Chairman of the Executive Board, said: "With the outbreak of the corona crisis, nothing is the same as it was just a few weeks ago. The maintenance industry is already suffering from the decline in air traffic. The full extent will hit us with a delay, which means a forecast is currently not possible, but first impacts are massive. Everything depends on the duration of the crisis and how our customers will recover from it. We have prepared ourselves with a very comprehensive package of measures – also, to be able to deliver at any time. Especially now, our customers need a reliable technical partner." 

The year 2019 continued a phase of strong global growth. Over the past five years, Lufthansa Technik AG's revenue has grown by almost 60 percent. In the last financial year alone, the company acquired 25 new customers and signed 625 contracts with new business worth EUR 4.1bn. Compared to 2018, investments increased by 28 percent from EUR 244 million to EUR 313 million. On annual average, in 2019 Lufthansa Technik employeed almost 26,000 people worldwide. 

The strategy of long-term partnerships with engine and component manufacturers (Original Equipment Manufacturers) reached important milestones with the start of operations at the two joint ventures XEOS (with GE Aviation) and EME Aero (with MTU Aero Engines) in 2019. Lufthansa Technik also continued to drive the digitalization of the industry with its AVIATAR platform: More than 30 different modules are now offered to meet the various needs of airlines.  

"In the past year, we successfully continued our growth path: More than 5,000 serviced aircraft from more than 850 customers speak for themselves," explained Johannes Bußmann. "Due to the international nature of our company, we believe that we can cope with the effects of the crisis." 

It is not yet clear how quickly the industry will recover from the decline. It was last forecasted to grow by an average of seven percent per year until 2029. 

All figures in this press release apply to Lufthansa Technik AG and its 25 fully consolidated companies, including Lufthansa Industry Solutions for the first time. This integration is also taken into account in the comparative figures for 2018. The full annual report is available at www.lufthansa-technik.com/financials

The Russian carrier Red Wings Airlines has contracted Lufthansa Technik to provide extensive support for its growing Airbus narrowbody fleet. Within the frame of a contract with another Russian airline, Lufthansa Technik will also provide technical services for the Boeing 737 fleet of SmartAvia.

Under a six-year contract with Red Wings Airlines, Lufthansa Technik supports the IAE V2500 and CFM56-5B engines of the carrier's Airbus fleet with a full range of engine services including engine condition monitoring (ECM). For the duration of the contract, a shop visit is planned for each of the currently 24 engines. Lufthansa Technik will also maintain the landing gears of Red Wings' fleet of currently eight Airbus A320s and four A321s on a fixed price basis over the next six years.

Lufthansa Technik already supports Red Wings Airlines with numerous other services, among them component support. 

SmartAvia continues long-term cooperation

SmartAvia has signed a long-term agreement covering technical services for the carrier's Boeing 737 fleet. Under the terms of the contract, Lufthansa Technik provides spare parts for the Boeing 737 NG aircraft of the carrier's fleet.

The new contract provides Smartavia with guaranteed access to Lufthansa Technik's component and spare parts pool. Lufthansa Technik's support around the clock ensures that all aircraft spare parts can be supplied to the airline at short notice, reducing the time required to maintain the aircraft and therefore its ground time. Ultimately, this comprehensive support will allow Smartavia to increase its fleet renewal rate, to expand its route network and enhance the level of services provided to passengers.

With the new contract, the decade-long relationship of Smartavia and Lufthansa Technik continues to progress on a steep growth path.

The two companies will combine their respective areas of A380 landing gear MRO expertise at their Singapore (Safran Landing Systems) and London (Lufthansa Technik) facilities to deliver optimized solutions that cover all aspects of the so-called superjumbo jet's landing gear. This extensive asset and MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) partnership will provide airlines with a single point of contact throughout the whole commercial and industrial chain, thus a comprehensive A380 landing gear support. Airlines will be free to send their complete set of landing gear to one of the partners, thus avoiding complex processes.

Bruno Chiarelli, Safran Landing Systems Executive Vice President, MRO Division, said: "We are proud to team up with Lufthansa Technik to offer our customers the best solutions in terms of competitiveness and logistics. They will benefit from the combined expertise of an OEM/MRO and a "nose to tail" MRO service provider, both world-class in their field."

Sandra Eckstein, Vice President of Aircraft Systems at Lufthansa Technik, added: "This far-reaching partnership with Safran Landing Systems enables us to offer a complete MRO landing gear service portfolio for the A380. Our customers will benefit from their combined expertise, with Lufthansa Technik also contributing our comprehensive A380 main landing gear support capabilities."

Safran is an international high-technology group, operating in the aircraft propulsion and equipment, space and defense markets. Safran has a global presence, with more than 95,000 employees and sales of 24,6 billion euros in 2019. Safran is listed on the Euronext Paris stock exchange, and is part of the CAC 40 and Euro Stoxx 50 indices.

Safran Landing Systems is the world leader in aircraft landing and braking systems. The company works with 30 civil and military aircraft manufacturers and supports 27,800 aircraft that make 73,000 landings a day.

Safran Landing Systems press contacts:
Caroline Coudert: caroline.coudert@safrangroup.com / T +33 (0)1 46 29 28 95
Jérémie Roy: jeremie.roy@safrangroup.com / T +33 (0)1 46 29 18 22
 

Lufthansa Technik is one of the first companies in Germany to use its own private wireless networks based on the latest standard 5G. In February, the first 5G private wireless networks have been put into operation for two innovation projects in the field of VIP completion and engine overhaul at Lufthansa Technik's Hamburg base.

For testing the technology, Lufthansa Technik has set up two separate private 5G networks at its Hamburg base, with different technology and network providers (Vodafone and Nokia). Instead of extending publicly available mobile networks to the Lufthansa base, a completely independent infrastructure has been installed, with its own antennas and servers that can only be accessed by Lufthansa Technik. Therefore, "LH-Technik" appears as the network operator in the display of the mobile devices used.

The company is thus the first outside Asia to operate a fully-fledged standalone 5G network based on the new standard (3GPP Release 16) in an industrial environment. This enables higher security and a completely free configuration, which allows the company's own 5G networks to be adapted exactly to the requirements of the respective evaluation projects, for example in the ratio of upload and download bandwidth.

The new 5G network technology will benefit two innovation projects, with which the company is testing new technologies in the areas of engine overhaul and VIP completion. One project uses augmented reality to virtually visualize the 3D design data of the planned cabin interior in empty aircraft fuselages. By means of live data transmission, the technicians on site always have the opportunity to check the current position of all planned components and, additionally, to coordinate any necessary changes with the developers through collaborative video functions.

In the second project, the "Virtual Table Inspection", customers can remotely attend the inspection of engine parts and no longer have to travel to Hamburg for it. For this purpose, they are guided directly through the engine shop by means of a mobile device. Via a video stream they can communicate in real time with the engine mechanics performing the work, inspect the dismantled parts in high-resolution on the screen and make the appropriate order decisions.

Both projects have a very high demand for bandwidth for wireless data transmission, which could not be covered adequately by the previous 4G and Wi-Fi technologies. The public 4G upload rate was often no longer sufficient for high-resolution video streams, and the Wi-Fi standard, as an alternative, is not designed for a change of location between individual cells, which previously often led to connection terminations.

5G technology solves both problems at once, as it not only enables a significantly higher data transmission rate (in the final expansion stage up to 10 Gbit/s compared to a maximum of 1Gbit/s for 4G/LTE), but also allows mobile devices to switch smoothly between individual radio cells. One such network will cover one of the two engine shops in Hamburg, another a complete aircraft hangar with a surface area of about 8,500 square meters. In the latter case, it is particularly important that sufficient signal strength is always available inside the parked aircraft to ensure a secure connection. In order to ensure this at all times, 5G technology allows so-called beamforming, in which the antenna focuses its transmission field, which is otherwise spread across the entire hangar, on one or more mobile devices located in the hangar.

With frequencies that are close to those of conventional Wi-Fi (3.7 – 3.8 GHz), the radiation level remains within the non-critical range at all times, even in the focused use of 5G technology, so that any risk to employees in the relevant areas is ruled out. The German Federal Network Agency has approved Lufthansa Technik's use of the company's own frequencies accordingly. If 5G proves successful with the users in the two innovation projects, the technology will be rolled out to other Lufthansa Technik divisions in the near future so that its advantages can also be used in daily aircraft maintenance operations.

"Continuous innovation is part of our corporate DNA, and this is what drives us to constantly try out new approaches," explained Soeren Stark, Member of Lufthansa Technik's Executive Board, responsible for Technical Operations, Logistics and IT. "The first two application cases already impressively demonstrate the valuable contribution 5G technology can make to the aviation industry. It will also pave the way for numerous new innovations at Lufthansa Technik that will benefit our company, our employees and also our customers".

"The German economy needs 5G. We have 5G. As a partner in all things 5G, we want to help our industry to maintain its leading position into the future. Those who build on new technology today will be one step ahead tomorrow," said Hannes Ametsreiter, Chief Executive Officer of Vodafone Deutschland. "We support our partners in bringing 5G to their daily business as soon as possible. To the factories. To the business parks. And now even to aircraft hangars. With individual campus networks perfectly tailored to the needs of our partners."

Kathrin Buvac, President of Nokia Enterprise, said: "This application captures the essential value of fast, secure 5G private wireless networking to help improve operational efficiency, productivity and service. It highlights the potential for new ways of working that benefit not only our customers, but also the markets they serve."

Lufthansa Technik AG is now using a new, faster and more environmentally conscious process to maintain aircraft fire extinguishers at its Hamburg component shop. A test facility for this work was dedicated recently and put into regular service. The new process primarily reduces environmental risks while also significantly cutting turnaround times. The job of inspecting the fire extinguisher container no longer involves the time-consuming task of purging the ozone-depleting halon from the container (pressure bottle), temporarily storing it and externally processing it for reuse. Lufthansa Technik is the world's first and only independent maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) provider that offers this service on the market. 

The pressure bottles of aircraft fire extinguishing systems are usually ball-shaped metal containers that measure between ten and more than 40 centimeters in diameter. Their structural integrity and proper function must be regularly checked. Up to now, they have been emptied and inspected in a water bath using hydrostatic testing methods. As part of the work, the attachment parts on the container are removed and then welded back into place. The inspection also involves the purging of halon, an ozone-depleting chemical that is still used in aviation for this special purpose due to safety reasons and the lack of alternatives. The halon is then temporarily stored in containers at the Hamburg base. Authorized service providers then clean and certify it before it is refilled in the bottles. Each step in the process of purging the fire extinguishing agent, temporarily storing it and transporting it poses a potential risk to the environment.  

The new process enables the fire extinguishing agent to remain in the pressure bottle throughout the entire inspection, a change that eliminates the complex handling of the chemical. In the new inspection procedure, the filled pressure tank is placed into a special jig and then heated in a chamber. The pressure in the container rises, and the stress in its metal housing increases. This results in tension in the material, a process that triggers sound waves. Special sensors acting like microphones are attached to the exterior of the container before the heating process begins in order to pick up these sound waves. Similar to the system used to localize earthquakes in the crust of the Earth the position of every sound source can now be calculated with the help of differences in travel times and conclusions drawn about possible damage to the pressure tank. These findings are promptly displayed to the inspector in a 3D model on a monitor, exactly localized and color coded on the basis of certain criteria. Afterwards, a decision regarding the continued use or disposal of the pressure tank can be directly made. 

"The sensors being used are so sensitive that we can detect and localize very small events in the material structure," explains Anna Balka, the head of the innovation project called EFFECT (Extreme Fast Fire Extinguisher Check and Test) that developed the new process. "Even though the inspection of the pressure bottles is much more sensitive, a complete test takes no more than 90 minutes. The maintenance work can now be completed much faster and more economically and environmentally consciously than with conventional processes, because many other process steps are no longer necessary." 

SAS Scandinavian Airlines has prematurely extended its existing component support contract with Lufthansa Technik AG and added further services. Under the new agreement running until December 2026, Lufthansa Technik will provide an integrated material supply (Total Component Support, TCS®) for the airline's entire Boeing and Airbus fleet, including the carrier's new A350s. In addition, Lufthansa Technik will provide Airframe Related Components (ARC®) services for the Boeing and Airbus fleets including LEAP-1A nacelle support.  

"We are pleased to further expand our already close partnership with Lufthansa Technik and to include also the new Airbus A350," says Marc Weber, Vice President SAS Technical Operations. "Based on our excellent and trusted relations, I believe that early extending and enlarging this successful cooperation will allow us to benefit even more from Lufthansa Technik's technical expertise, competence and capabilities. Especially in view of the extensive renewal of our fleet, we continue to fully trust in this support." 

Robert Gaag, Vice President Corporate Sales Europe, Middle East and Africa of Lufthansa Technik, comments: "We are proud and delighted that the leading Scandinavian airline has not only renewed its current contract ahead of schedule, but has also put the material supply of its entire Airbus fleet in our hands. This is not only a sign of trust in our services from SAS but also another strong indication of the investment and dedication that Lufthansa Technik has put into delivering market-leading A350 services." 

Under the Total Component Support (TCS®) contract, Lufthansa Technik supplies spare parts to the airline's Scandinavian hubs. Lufthansa Technik is also responsible for base maintenance of the carrier's A330 and A340 long-haul aircraft as well as for the maintenance and repair of composites structures (Airframe Related Components, ARC®). Here, the contract expansion also covers nacelle support for the SAS fleet's A320neo aircraft powered by LEAP-1A engines. Additionally, the agreement entails A350 wheels and brakes services. 

The first of eight Airbus A350s on order has just recently entered the SAS fleet. As part of the modernization of the short and long-haul fleet, SAS will take delivery of new Airbus A320neo (80), Airbus A330 Enhanced (5), Airbus A350 (8) and Airbus A321LR (3) aircraft before the end of 2023. 

Collins Aerospace Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX), and Lufthansa Technik AG today announced a licensing agreement for nacelle Maintenance Repair & Overhaul (MRO) services on A320neo aircraft. Collins Aerospace, the original equipment manufacturer for the A320neo PW1100G nacelle, has more than 1,100 nacelles in service on this aircraft platform.  

The agreement, which continues the collaboration between Collins Aerospace and Lufthansa Technik, calls for Collins Aerospace to provide Lufthansa Technik with technical and repair process information, access to OEM tooling, and rotable asset pools to support a full suite of A320neo nacelle MRO services. Building upon Collins Aerospace's eight strategically located nacelle MRO facilities, the agreement now opens A320neo operators to Lufthansa Technik's expansive MRO network around the world. Access to this expanded MRO network together with in-region asset presence and the enhanced ability to conduct on-site repairs around the world will reduce aircraft downtime, passenger delays, and transportation costs incurred by the airline. 

"As a result of this agreement, A320neo operators now have access to multiple high-quality repair center locations for nacelle MRO services," said Marc Duvall, president of Aerostructures at Collins Aerospace. "The collaborative relationship between Lufthansa Technik and Collins Aerospace, which also includes the 787 and A350XWB nacelles, ensures a high standard of quality while meeting the demands of airlines with full confidence." 

Michael Kirstein, Head of Aircraft Systems / ARC (airframe related components) at Lufthansa Technik, said: "In expanding Lufthansa Technik's collaboration with Collins Aerospace, we are expanding the network of support to the growing A320neo customer base of over 100 airlines. Furthermore, this agreement is another milestone for Lufthansa Technik to offer its comprehensive repair and asset provision services on all new aircraft types". 

TATA SIA Airlines Limited (Vistara) and Lufthansa Technik have signed a twelve-year component support agreement for the Boeing 787 fleet to be operated by Vistara. The Indian carrier has six firm orders and four options for this aircraft type. The agreement covers a wide range of aircraft components for the Boeing 787. Service provision will start as early as the first quarter of 2020. 

Sisira Kanta Dash, Senior Vice President Engineering, Vistara said: "We are very pleased to partner with Lufthansa Technik to provide component support for our new 787 fleet. We have been working with Lufthansa Technik for the past three years on various projects and are looking forward to further deepening this successful cooperation. We are confident that Lufthansa Technik, with its extensive technical capabilities, fast response time and dedicated support, will optimally contribute to our 787 operations." 

"With our local customer service team, we have developed excellent working relationships with this fast-growing carrier. The airline's requests are always handled with the highest priority," comments Zang Thio, Senior Director Corporate Sales Southeast Asia and Indian subcontinent of Lufthansa Technik. "We are very proud that Vistara has once again placed its trust in us and our services for its new 787 fleet." 

Vistara, a joint venture of TATA group India and Singapore Airlines, is India's premium full-service carrier and the only 5-star rated airline in India. Lufthansa Technik already supports the Indian airline with single component services, ad hoc composites repairs (Airframe Related Components, ARC®), consumables supply and AOG (Aircraft on Ground) support for the carrier's Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 fleets. The new contract also contributes to consolidating Lufthansa Technik's role as market leader  for 787 component services in Asia Pacific. 

Wizz Air, the largest low-cost carrier in Central and Eastern Europe, has introduced Lufthansa Technik's digital Line Maintenance Planning Solution available on the AVIATAR platform as a launching customer. Being a partner of AVIATAR since its introduction in 2017, Wizz Air uses the new tool to improve productivity, maximize aircraft availability and to reduce the manual planning effort.  

The integration of data from various different IT systems on AVIATAR is used by the algorithm based solution to adapt plans for each maintenance location and for every aircraft in the fleet instantaneously. Every change in the flight schedule or maintenance requirements results directly in an updated plan, which can be transferred to the maintenance information system with a single click.  Designed as a decision support tool, planning conflicts are made transparent, allowing the planner to manually intervene and focus on issues where his knowhow is required. The easy to implement solution is compatible with every common flight scheduling system and requires no additional authority approval. 

 "Working with our partners from Lufthansa Technik and the AVIATAR team over the past few months was exciting. We are looking forward to operationalize the use of the new Line Maintenance Planning tool, because it helps us to reduce our human workload," said Ljubomir Jesic, Maintenance Planning Manager at Wizz Air. "Especially for a fast growing airline, like Wizz Air, it is very important to establish efficient processes which can be scaled easily. We are proud to be the launching customer for this very innovative digital solution of AVIATAR." 

"Scheduling maintenance events is a highly complex task and adapting it instantaneously in daily operations is even more complex, when short term changes in flight operations occur," said Valerie Hermann, one of the Product Owners, Line Maintenance Planning Solution at Lufthansa Technik. "Our team has interviewed planners at many airlines and Lufthansa Technik to define the requriements for our new tool and its great to see it go live at Wizz Air." "An ultra low cost carrier and demanding partner like Wizz Air is extremly helpful to focus on the key requirements for a MVP (Minimum Viable Product)," added her colleague, Dajana Kunz. "Developing such an unique solution for the first time is a very ambitious undertaking. Having a visionary customer like Wizz Air helped us to excel." 

Today in Hamburg, the joint research project Medifly, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Transportation and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI), successfully demonstrated the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for acute transportation of medical samples. A total of six drone flights were conducted between the German Armed Forces Hospital in Wandsbek-Gartenstadt and Saint Mary's Hospital in Hohenfelde, roughly five kilometers (linear distance) apart from each other. The insight gained from today's flights will lay the foundation for extended test operations over several months.  

The research goal of Medifly is to find out in how far unmanned aircraft systems can be used to perform acute transports of medical samples in a safe and reliable manner. Tissue samples are regularly extracted during medical surgery. To make sure that the surgeon has removed all abnormal tissue, the samples  have to be examined by a pathologist during the surgery. Usually, multiple samples are therefore removed, individually packed, and sent to a pathology lab for diagnosis. 

However, most hospitals no longer operate their own pathology labs and hence have their tissue samples transported by an ambulance to the nearest available hospital with a pathology lab. During this time, the surgery is on hold and can not be resumed until the pathologic results are received, often resulting in long periods of anesthesia. Replacing the ambulance by a drone could significantly shorten the transportation process and hence the periods of anesthesia, as the pathology lab can be reached by air, independent of the traffic on the ground. In addition, drones could even connect remote hospitals that sometimes are so far away from any pathology lab that they have to send their tissue samples after surgery. Depending on the diagnosis, this carries the risk of a second surgery. 

As the drone flights not only conducted in a densely populated urban area, but also in the air traffic control zone of Hamburg's international airport, a large number of safety measures had to be implemented. First, evidence had to be provided that automated flights in this complex environment and above highly-frequented traffic routes can be performed safely and reliably at any time. Thus, all parties involved had to invest several months of discussions and thorough planning to obtain the required flight approvals from the responsible authorities. The project partners thank Hamburg's civil aviation authority and the air traffic control office (DFS) at Hamburg airport in particular for the very constructive exchange during the planning phase. 

Several reknowned institutions have joined forces for the Medifly project: ZAL Center of Applied Aeronautical Research, FlyNex, GLVI Gesellschaft für Luftverkehrsinformatik and Lufthansa Technik AG. Hamburg's Authority for Economics, Transport and Innovation, as well as both hospitals involved, have joined Medifly as associate partners. Based on the insight gained from today's successful test flights, the partners intend to start an extended test flight campaign soon. This is expected to last several months in order to assess additional factors for an economically-viable utilization of the UAS technology. 

"Due to their manifold fields of application, unmanned aircraft systems have significantly gained importance – on a commercial level as well as in private. Unmanned air systems technology thus provides numerous interesting growth potentials for the German economy," said Michael Westhagemann, Hamburg's Senator for Economics, Transport and Innovation. "In this project, the specific benefit for both users and the community is clearly visible. Automated aerial vehicles will contribute significantly to the improvement of health care." 

"Today's successful test flights are an important step towards the future use of drone systems – right in the middle of the city of Hamburg," stated Boris Wechsler, Project Manager for Medifly at ZAL. "We know where to start and what we need to do in the future. And we can already say: further drone projects will follow."  

"Medifly is not a classic aviation topic," said Christian Caballero, Chief Operating Officer at FlyNex GmbH. "The mass of influencing factors for a successful flight planning results from the ground infrastructure. With our solutions, we can also set the course for automated flights out of sight for this project and show how medical drones can support health care." 

"In order to establish a sustainable and future-oriented air transport service, it is important to acknowledge that we are not alone in this air space," said Sabrina John, project leader at GLVI. "In a metropolis like Hamburg, you permanently have to watch out for police and rescue helicopters. We are happy that we could contribute our years-long experience with air traffic control and air traffic management and bring all involved parties together." 

"Stable and, most importantly, safe drone flights rely on a sophisticated concept of operations," said Olaf Ronsdorf, project leader at Lufthansa Technik. "Thus, we are not only proud of having contributed our enormous experience from the field of manned and commercial aviation, but we also look forward to exploring new possibilities for future unmanned air transport solutions." 

"Drone-based tissue transports open up numerous new possibilities for us," said Dr. Tariq Nazar, ENT specialist at the Hospital of the German Armed Forces in Hamburg. "The ambulances we use for this task today are prone to Hamburg's sometimes challenging traffic conditions and hence sometimes suffer from unnecessary delays. Due to the fact that we require the pathologic results while the surgery is still ongoing, we appreciate the chance to significantly shorten the periods of anesthesia for our patients." 

"We are happy to partner in such a future-oriented project," said Ursula Störrle-Weiß, Managing Director of the MVZ medical center at Saint Mary's hospital, responsible for the Institute of Pathology. "The benefit of drone-based transportation of medical tissue is significant, especially in regard to the so-called ‘frozen sections' extracted during tumor operations, which need to be examined immediately. The sooner our pathology lab receives the samples, the faster we can provide the test results. Usually it takes no longer than 20 minutes before we can make a diagnosis, for example to determine whether a tumor is benignant or malignant or if the lymphatic glands are also affected. Achieving the shortest possible waiting times for our precise and safe diagnostics, is therefore a win-win situation for both surgeons and patients." 

In 2018, Hamburg was one of the first cities to join the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Initiative of the European Innovation Partnership for Smart Cities (EIP-SCC) funded by the European Commission. Hamburg is therefore an official model region for the exploration of civil use cases and application fields for drones and other urban air transport technologies.