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Lufthansa Technik Middle East (LTME) has further increased its footprint for Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) services in the Gulf region and is set to continue on its recent growth path. The wholly-owned subsidiary of Lufthansa Technik AG has recently expanded both its production capacity as well as its product and capabilities portfolio. In addition, the company welcomed several new major regional and supra-regional customers and moreover greatly increased its workforce at the Mohammed bin Rashid Aerospace Hub at Dubai South Airport (DWC).

The number of people employed by LTME recently surpassed the mark of 100 and is set to grow even further in 2020. During the recent expansion, special emphasis was put on the acquisition of local talents, which was moreover fostered by intense cooperation with Middle Eastern universities such as the Emirates Aviation University in Dubai and the American University of Sharjah.

Since the inauguration of the new facility in 2017, LTME's customer base has seen continuous growth and now stretches even beyond the Gulf region with the company also providing regular services to several African and East-Asian airlines. Moreover, the company was recently able to further strengthen its local customer base in the Middle East by providing ad-hoc maintenance services within its repair portfolio for Gulf Air, the national carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Gulf Air's Chief Technical Officer Jamal Hashim commented: "Gulf Air is committed to achieving technical excellence in aircraft maintenance. LTME's vast experience and high quality technical expertise in the areas of maintenance is the primary reason we selected the company as Gulf Air's ad-hoc repair service provider for such critical items like radomes. Secondly, their close proximity to Bahrain has the added benefit that our parts will no longer have to leave the region for maintenance, thereby improving efficiency, decreasing turnaround time, reducing logistic charges and ultimately lowering Gulf Air's operational costs while maintaining the highest quality of safety standards."

"The establishment and further expansion of Lufthansa Technik Middle East is progressing well. Our new facility inaugurated two years ago has significantly strengthened our footprint in the region," said Ziad Al Hazmi, Chief Executive Officer of LTME. "With ongoing investments in our local product and capabilities portfolio as well as in the local people, we are looking forward to even further expand our contribution to this important region."

LTME's local product portfolio has recently been broadened with additional Airframe Related Components (ARC®) and flight control repair capabilities and an extended spare parts pool for engine nacelles of the Boeing 787. Moreover, the company offers ARC® support, AOG (Aircraft-On-Ground) support and engine wash services as well as a local material support desk. The material pool in Dubai now covers parts and components for the Boeing 787, 777 and the Airbus A320 and A350 families.

Work on the world's first ever head-of-state cabin conversion of an Airbus A350 long-haul aircraft will begin next year at Lufthansa Technik AG. So that the German Federal Government's Special Air Mission Wing, the user of the aircraft, can have the first aircraft available as soon as possible, it will be equipped with a special transitional cabin for the transportation of delegations. Preparations have already begun at the company's VIP workshops in Hamburg, where the aircraft is expected in April 2020.

The transitional cabin will be tailored precisely to the customer's specific requirements, featuring an office area and spacious conference area, adjoined by a multifunctional lounge area. The rest of the cabin area will be available to the accompanying delegations. It will be equipped with modern, comfortable seats, a generous number of washrooms and a kitchen designed to cater for up to 150 people.

"The German Air Force was our very first external customer. We have been equipping its aircraft, including government aircraft, for decades, thus forming a comprehensive partnership," said Wieland Timm, Senior Director Sales, VIP & Special Mission Aircraft at Lufthansa Technik. "That we have now been asked to support and equip the latest generation of government aircraft as well is a great vote of confidence. With our wide-ranging expertise for the Airbus A350, we are well equipped to meet the high expectations of the new government aircraft."

Lufthansa Technik provided crucial support in the development of the Airbus A350. Today, the company is one of the leading providers of engineering and maintenance services for this aircraft type and is capable of supplying the majority of A350 components. In early 2017, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) also approved Lufthansa Technik as a design organization (Part 21/J) for the A350.

That same year, Lufthansa Technik already developed and launched an innovative cabin concept for the Airbus A350 XWB called Welcome Home. In total, the company has provided cabin interiors for more than 45 wide-body aircraft to date. The designs realized range from impressive offices and spacious bathrooms and bedrooms to dining and conference areas as well as various forms of seating for the accompanying delegations.

 

Honeywell (NYSE: HON) and Lufthansa Technik are collaborating to deliver the best of Honeywell Forge for Airlines and Lufthansa Technik maintenance analytics on AVIATAR to help airline operators increase the availability of their aircraft and reduce costs associated with operations, flight delays, and cancellations.

The collaboration will create a comprehensive data analytics solution for airlines - from the data pipe, to a platform that digitizes maintenance data, to realized benefits based on analytics and predictive tools. 

"We are working to provide the world's airlines and other stakeholders in the industry with access to a comprehensive digital operations suite that will ultimately reduce operational costs, improve maintenance turnaround times, and get planes into the sky faster," said Dr. Christian Langer, vice president Digital Fleet Solutions at Lufthansa Technik. "We live in a data-driven world, and the more Lufthansa Technik can support better data analysis for maintenance and other services, the better it is for our customers. The inclusion and collaboration of Honeywell Forge analytics with the Lufthansa Technik offering will further foster that development to help improve airlines' operations at scale."

New aircraft can produce 50 times more data than many older aircraft still in service. That increase in data volume leads to greater complexity, but also provides significant opportunities to increase safety and efficiency. The data not only needs to be stored – it must be sorted, analyzed, interpreted, and translated into meaningful insights and actionable recommendations. Honeywell and Lufthansa Technik, two of the leading maintenance, repair and overhaul service providers in the world, excel at that translation from data to insight. With inclusion of the Honeywell Forge analytics on the AVIATAR platform, customers can broaden their aircraft component coverage and depth, thus enabling customers to make faster and better operational decisions.

"Combining the power of Honeywell Forge Connected Maintenance with the capability of AVIATAR provides a new option for airlines looking for a total aircraft digital maintenance solution," said Jim Currier, president, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and India Sales at Honeywell, Aerospace.  "Honeywell and Lufthansa Technik bring decades of experience with aircraft maintenance to this digital experience. This results in opportunities for airlines to reduce minimum equipment list failures by up to 35% while reducing flight cancellations or delays due to maintenance."

Lufthansa Technik AG and Politecnico di Torino, the polytechnic university of Turin, Italy, recently developed an automated, non-invasive diagnostic procedure for the initial examination of primary hydraulic flight control actuators. The aim of the Hydraulic Diagnostics (HyDiag) project, which will run to the end of 2020, is to make diagnoses for these safety-critical components much more precise, to speed up maintenance and to significantly extend their service life. 

Since they are constantly in motion during flight, primary fly-by-wire flight control actuators in particular are subject to a very high load. If an error message occurs, they are checked for wear and tear at Lufthansa Technik's component workshops in Hamburg and are readjusted. For this purpose, the actuator in question is first extended and retracted in the test bench following an extensive sequence of individual patterns of movement, while a highly sensitive measurement system records its behavior during this input. Repairs are made wherever the results exceed the tolerances prescribed by the Component Maintenance Manual. 

Up to now, this initial test was performed by a mechanic, but owing to human limitations in recognizing errors and making accurate adjustments, this person could only "work by feel" finding individual areas of damage. Many areas of incipient damage remained undiscovered with this approach because they were still within the tolerance limits, but just a short time later, these areas could also trigger a repeated exchange of the actuator. As a result, the actuator's time-on-wing dropped continually with every visit to the workshop. 

To prevent this, the automated HyDiag procedure follows a strictly data-centric approach. In the process, the actuator is stimulated during initial examination with an extensive oscillation pattern developed especially for this process. In a fashion similar to a stress ECG, during the procedure the test bench records all the component-specific reactions to this stimulation. The data gained this way is so informative that conclusions can be drawn about the wear and tear of nearly all individual components. As a result, the mechanic obtains a much more comprehensive diagnosis of the wear and tear on the entire actuator system as early as the initial examination, and can focus afterwards on preventing future wear and tear as well. The service life of the component is prolonged significantly as a result. The procedures for stimulating the actuator and for analyzing and interpreting the test results were created in close cooperation with the polytechnic university of Turin, Italy. 

As a second core component aside from the measuring system, HyDiag uses an industrial robot whose software was developed by the Component Services division especially for this task. The robot can carry out all the necessary adjustments during initial examination completely automatically, and in contrast to a human mechanic it does not require special protection when working in the danger zone of a pressurized actuator. Using the data that is recorded, the robot also always "knows" where the optimum for each of the settings lies, and it delivers additional measurement data that has historically not been available for analysis. As a result, the final adjustment of the actuator – the certification test – is also much more precise than it previously was when completed by hand. 

All the adjustment tools for the robot were manufactured using 3D printing at Lufthansa Technik's Additive Manufacturing Center. In addition, when producing its findings the new data-based procedure uses all the existing service life data of the actuator in question – with up to 16 gigabytes of data generated by every initial examination. The result is a much more extensive and detailed analysis of the status of the actuator, which permits wear and tear to be recognized and treated very early.  

"The automated work process means that devices can be tested faster, more data can be generated, and new diagnostic procedures can be used. That enables us to undertake much more extensive troubleshooting than we ever could before," said Michael Burke, who heads up the HyDiag project for Lufthansa Technik. 

"The HyDiag project has a highly innovative content leading to a technological breakthrough in the maintenance of aircraft equipment. Our work together with Lufthansa Technik has advanced the field of Prognostics and Health Management and resulted in multiple papers acknowledged by the community for their quality and scientific relevance," said Professor Giovanni Jacazio, who supervises the activities of Politecnico di Torino on HyDiag. 

Collins Aerospace Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX), and Lufthansa Technik AG today announced a first-of-its-kind licensing and asset agreement for Airbus A380 main landing gear Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (MRO) services. Under the agreement, which spans the life of the A380 program, Lufthansa Technik will be able to provide A380 main landing gear MRO services and access to assets supporting customer layover schedules.  

To help Lufthansa Technik develop MRO capabilities for the A380 main landing gear, Collins Aerospace will provide training, parts and proprietary repair procedures, including access to technical publications required to perform A380 main landing gear MRO services.  Lufthansa Technik will offer asset management services through access to a collaboratively managed main landing gears pool of Collins Aerospace. 
 
"This agreement will provide A380 operators with more options for their main landing gear MRO services from high-quality repair centers," said Ajay Mahajan, president of Landing Systems at Collins Aerospace. "Lufthansa Technik and Collins Aerospace have enjoyed a longstanding, collaborative relationship and we look forward to continuing to work together to better meet the MRO needs of our customers moving forward." 
 
Sandra Eckstein, Vice President of Aircraft Systems at Lufthansa Technik said: "This agreement will enable us to support customers comprehensively, not only for planned repair events but also in the case of non-routine work. Our landing gear experts in London will be ready for A380 services in 2020. Especially for customers in the EMEA region this capability will save time and costs. And the next step to further expand our intensive partnership with Collins Aerospace in this area is already planned as we intend to develop new repair methods for the A380 landing gear which are OEM approved."  

About Collins Aerospace 
 
Collins Aerospace Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX), is a leader in technologically advanced and intelligent solutions for the global aerospace and defense industry. Created in 2018 by bringing together UTC Aerospace Systems and Rockwell Collins, Collins Aerospace has the capabilities, comprehensive portfolio and expertise to solve customers' toughest challenges and to meet the demands of a rapidly evolving global market. For more information, visit CollinsAerospace.com.  
 
About United Technologies Corporation 
 
United Technologies Corp., based in Farmington, Connecticut, provides high-technology systems and services to the building and aerospace industries. By combining a passion for science with precision engineering, the company is creating smart, sustainable solutions the world needs. For more information about the company, visit utc.com or follow on Twitter: @UTC 

With the continued customer-focused expansion of the independent digital platform AVIATAR, Lufthansa Technik has further integrated the possibilities of digitalization with proven maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services. A growing number of new digital solutions and automated processes allows airline customers to benefit from lower cost, more efficient operations and higher aircraft reliability.

Lufthansa Technik is rigorously developing AVIATAR further into the Digital Operations Suite, which is set to contain all of the company's digital solutions. A number of these are currently being renamed to make the purpose and customer benefits of individual digital services more transparent to users. Airlines using AVIATAR will thus find it even easier to obtain not only a comprehensive real-time view of the status of their fleets, but also fast and efficient solutions to problems which arise during operations.

This week, Lufthansa Technik has further increased its market presence for connectivity modifications in Asia, the world's most rapidly developing market for inflight internet solutions. As the most recent customer for these services, Lufthansa Technik welcomed Chinese service provider Air Esurfing Information Technology Co., Ltd., which it will help in providing aircraft with the first ever inflight connectivity solution for the Chinese market. Further contract partners include Honeywell (antenna hardware provider) and China Satcom (satellite provider). 

According to a new 5-year agreement, Lufthansa Technik will design and certify Ka-band-based connectivity retrofit packages for both the Airbus A320ceo and A320neo aircraft families as well as the Boeing 737NG and 737MAX. The company will also work with Air Esurfing Information Technology Co., Ltd. to provide the respective CAAC validated EASA Supplemental Type Certificate (VSTC) to support Chinese airlines. Moreover, Lufthansa Technik will take care of material supply and material handling services for the installation of the packages, that can be tailored to each of Air Esurfing's airline customers and their specific requirements.  

"As an in-flight solution provider on connectivity, the Company's strategic cooperation with Lufthansa Technik signals a new chapter in our history, as we take a big step forward empowering Chinese airlines with high-speed in-flight Internet services," said Herman Guo, Chief Executive Officer of AirNet, Air Esurfing's parent company. 

"The partnership with Air Esurfing is a significant step in Lufthansa Technik's global focus to meet a promising market demand in China," said Gerald Steinhoff, Vice President Corporate Sales Asia Pacific of Lufthansa Technik. "As a joint force, we shall exploit the full potentials of the Chinese market."

Lufthansa Technik Malta has started to carry out technical services on the Airbus A350. A first aircraft, an Airbus A350-1000 from an undisclosed customer, received a cabin modification in September.

The first A350-900 is expected to arrive in the next weeks for a C-check. So far, three international carriers, amongst them Air Mauritius, have signed MRO (maintenance, repair & overhaul) contracts for the A350 family with Lufthansa Technik Malta.

The start of modification and overhaul services at Lufthansa Technik Malta further strengthens Lufthansa Technik's position as the leading MRO services provider for this aircraft type in Europe, but also in Asia. More than 100 airplanes from different customers already receive comprehensive technical support for components, auxiliary power units, airframe related components, engines and other parts of the aircraft.

Marcus Motschenbacher, Chief Executive Officer of Lufthansa Technik Malta, said: "Our intensive preparations for the arrival of the A350 have been very successful. The first aircraft was re-delivered as planned. We are now looking forward to execute the first C-checks for this aircraft type and feel very well positioned to provide long-term technical support for the entire A350 family. Our facility has become the latest member of the global Lufthansa Technik A350 services network, adding new capabilities for this aircraft type to the whole group."

Lufthansa Technik Malta has undertaken thorough preparations in infrastructure investment and staff qualification to be able to carry out overhaul work on the A350 family. The German Federal Aviation Office (LBA) certification for the A350-1000 was achieved in August 2019. This certification complements the approval for overhaul work on the Airbus A350-900, attained in 2018. Lufthansa Technik Malta is among the first providers of this sort of MRO work anywhere in the world.

On the 30th of September 2019, XEOS, the new aircraft engine service centre located in Środa Śląska near Wrocław, has celebrated its official opening. The company is a joint venture of Lufthansa Technik (51%) and GE Aviation (49%) and is a service centre for GEnx-2B and GE9X engines. It was built in a record time of 16 months. The first commercial engine was accepted for repair in April 2019. In 2019, a total of about 20 engines will have been inducted for service here. After reaching its maturity in 2023 the plant will repair more than 200 engines per year. 

The grand opening ceremony was attended by representatives of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland and the Polish government as well as Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany Rolf Nikel and Christian Cardona, Political and Economic Consul of the US General Consulate. Carsten Spohr, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa, Dr. Johannes Bussmann, CEO of Lufthansa Technik, David Joyce, Vice Chair, GE and President & CEO, GE Aviation and Jean Lydon-Rodgers, President and CEO, GE Aviation Services represented the two shareholders.

Dr. Johannes Bussmann, CEO of Lufthansa Technik, commented: "For decades, Lufthansa Technik has been known as a centre of excellence in the maintenance, repair, and overhaul business of engines and engine components. The succesful opening of the XEOS engine shop with our partner GE is a cornerstone for our long-term growth strategy to offer comprehensive MRO services also for the latest generations of aircraft engines. On this occasion I would like to thank the whole XEOS team. Over the past two years you have done an extraordinary job to realize this project. You can be really proud of the creation of hundreds of high-level technical jobs and the implementation of the highest levels of international environmental and social compliance standards."

Jean Lydon-Rodgers, President & CEO, GE Aviation Services, said, "XEOS represents a unique collaboration between Lufthansa Technik and GE Aviation. Our combined capabilities and technological knowledge have merge to create one of the most advanced MRO facilities in the world for the GEnx-2B and GE9X engines. I congratulate the XEOS team for building this world-class MRO engine shop and look forward to a long future of working together to meet our customers' services needs."

Thomas Böttger, XEOS Managing Director of Business said: "In June 2015, at the Paris Air Show, two global aviation industry leaders – Lufthansa Technik and GE Aviation – took the decision to jointly develop a modern service centre for GEnx-2B and GE9X engines. Today we are fulfilling this dream and we are proud to take up further challenges. XEOS means innovative technologies, world-class solutions as well as the highest quality and safety standards."

The joint venture partners invested about PLN 1 billion (about 250mln USD)  to construct the facility and their own training centre from scratch, along with a test cell which is still in the ongoing second construction phase of the project.

Ultimately, the plant will employ about 600 people. At the moment XEOS team consists of 300 people: aircraft engine mechanics, engineers, logistics specialists and administration staff. They come not only from Środa Śląska and Lower Silesia  but from all over the world – with 12 nationalities in total. A considerable part of production staff have only started to become experts in the aviation industry in the XEOS centre. It has been possible owing to an 18-month theoretical and practical training programme, conducted in XEOS Training Centre in Bielany Wrocławskie and in similar facilities of Lufthansa Technik and GE Aviation – in  Germany and the UK.

At the Red Dot Design Awarding Ceremony 2019 in Singapore, Ameco's and Lufthansa Technik's jointly developed narrow-body VIP aircraft cabin ‘Nature's Touch' has been honored with a prestigious Red Dot award in the category "Design Concept". ‘Nature's Touch' is a business jet cabin interior concept that combines the cultures of East and West by using traditional Chinese elements and smart technology to create a convenient and comfortable travel experience.

The unique cabin concept brings a brand-new business travel experience to customers for the interior of the Airbus ACJ320neo business jet, which features a live-cooking aircraft galley, guest area, lounge, dining/meeting area, cinema, and master bedroom. The design explores the harmonious beauty in the symbiosis of nature and technology. Due to its flexibility the concept anticipates the adaption to a Boeing 737 BBJ configuration as well.

Feng Bin, Ameco's Deputy General Manager of Beijing Base & Leading Head of Aircraft Cabin Solutions Product Business Unit, said: " ‘Nature's Touch' is a deepening cooperation between Ameco and Lufthansa Technik in the cabin interior concept design, which combines Chinese cultural elements with Western intelligent technology. At the same time, the success of the ‘Nature's Touch' also reflects the cooperation advantages of the two companies. We will strive to bring more unique designs to the business jet aviation market and enhance the cabin experience for our customers. "

Jan Grube, Head of Asia Sales for VIP & Special Mission aircraft at Lufthansa Technik, added: "We are grateful for having had the chance to jointly develop this project with our partner Ameco. Such cooperation shows the synergies of our both company's strengths. This new design as such as well as the innovative features is separating it from similar concepts and the fact that we won the Red Dot Award shows its excellent reception in the market."

The cabin's interiors blend Confucianism with Modernism philosophy. Bamboo knuckles, leaves and woven artefacts are used as recurring motifs alongside traditional Chinese colors such as cream, moonlight beige, bamboo green, jade and crimson. Natural materials such as marble, genuine leather, wool and silk, complement textiles — which have subtle stripes simulating bamboo wood grain — are also used to embrace the eco-friendly trend, thereby adding warmth, depth and visual interest to the interiors.

Smart technology and digital interfaces — such as passenger system control units, wireless charging, intelligent cabin signs, smart touch-screen desktops, smart window shade glass and ambient lights — are incorporated in an unobtrusive and natural way to create a convenient and comfortable flight experience that seamlessly blends in with the cabin décor. In the lounge, a convertible sofa and coffee table, and bar with transformable dividers allow a variety of entertainment options.

The flexible dining/meeting area also offers several scene modes that can be adjusted depending on the situation, facilitating a comfortable and natural atmosphere. For business trips, the cabin displays, connected to news networks via cloud services, show the latest market data or news updates. In a leisure or entertainment scenario, the cabin displays connect to music and entertainment servers to broadcast visualisations that match the mood.

In addition, the cabin lighting and ambience can be programmed to suit a range of scenarios. The jet's cinema is fitted with today's largest roll-up screen — a 75-inch ultra-bright 4K display — and incorporates ambient lighting and an all-new louvered ceiling concept.

About the Red Dot award

Red Dot stands for belonging to the best in design and business. The international design competition, the "Red Dot Design Award", is aimed at all those who would like to distinguish their business activities through design. The distinction is based on the principle of selection and presentation. Excellent design is selected by competent expert juries in the areas of product design, communication design, and design concepts.

In order to appraise the diversity in the field of design in a professional manner, the award breaks down into three disciplines: the Red Dot Award: Product Design, Red Dot Award: Brands & Communication Design and Red Dot Award: Design Concept. Each competition is organised once every year. 

The products, communication projects as well as design concepts and prototypes entered in the competition are evaluated by the Red Dot Jury, which convenes once a year for each competition based on the individual specialist areas of the members.