Lufthansa Technik Malta venture a 'landmark' for Air Malta

The touchdown at Malta International Airport of a Lufthansa Boeing 737-300 on January 2 will not be an ordinary landing in the airline's scheduled service to and from the island.

It will signal the take-off of an ambitious joint venture between Air Malta and Lufthansa which underlines the skills of Maltese workers and the prestige of the Maltese national carrier in clinching cooperation with one of the world's leading airlines.

Lufthansa Technik Malta was set up last June to carry out what is known as C-Checks on Lufthansa and Air Malta aircraft and a third airline which has not yet been named.

The company will perform the C-Checks on various models of the Boeing 737 family, including the next generation ones, as well as on Airbus A320s. It will be launched officially on January 11.

A C-Check is an intense technical inspection that every aircraft needs to undergo after 15/18 months flying and is carried out over three days applying approximately 1,500 man hours.

Many airlines handle their planes on a day-to-day basis but C-Checks requires more expertise and tools.

Initially LT Malta will conduct C-Checks on the Boeing planes but will later on carry out the checks also on the Airbus models.

Lufthansa Technik Malta has 58 C-Check ordered for next year, 44 coming from Lufthansa, six from Air Malta and eight from the third customer.

Air Malta fleet currently consists of two Airbus A320s and nine Boeing 737s.

Initially, LT Malta will have a capacity of 60/70 slots per annum.

Lufthansa Technik AG, one of five subsidiaries of Lufthansa, is among the world's leading supplier of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services for commercial airlines. It services and overhauls aircraft and aero engines, electric equipment and components. Apart from the airlines in the Lufthansa Group, LT's customer base encompasses a further 320 carriers.

In recent years, LT, set up in 1995, expanded its network of offshoots and maintenance stations to more than 100 bases around the world. It employs more than 22,000 workers, half of them in Germany.

Air Malta chairman Louis Grech told media representatives, who were the guests of Lufthansa Technik AG on a visit to their aircraft maintenance base in Frankfurt and its overhaul base in Hamburg, that the LT Malta venture was a "landmark" for Air Malta.

Air Malta was now looking forward to expanding its operations within the new company, said Mr Grech, who was in Hamburg for "fine-tuning" talks before the start of operations.

He said that if operations for 2003 turned out as planned and if contacts being made with other airlines proved positive, the company could embark on a second production line that would enable the new company to carry out more than one check concurrently by the year 2004 or 2005. In such an eventuality more staff would be employed.

"We are already planning that we will increase our marketing strategy and potentially our operations by the year 2004/2005."

The agreement for the setting up of LT Malta was signed in Malta last June.

Lufthansa Technik AG has 51 per cent shareholding and Air Malta owns the remaining shares. It has a paid up capital of l.2 million euros. Only the financial controller and the quality manager from a total workforce of 100 will be German. The rest are all Maltese.

Forty-six out of 59 Air Malta technicians applied to join LT Malta. The rest of the technicians were employed after an external call for applications was made. The new technicians were trained with Lufthansa Technik AG in Germany.

Seventy eight of the company's workforce are technical, the rest back up staff.

Walking through Lufthansa Technik AG's facilities in Frankfurt and Hamburg one cannot but notice the professionality and efficiency employed whether in the 1001 jobs that are undertaken on stripped aircraft as well as other jobs, such as engine servicing and painting.

In such vast spaces and with so many people involved in different jobs at any one time, the neatness and order that exists at the bases has to be seen to be believed. All documents recording the hundreds upon hundreds of jobs in hand are recorded on computers in English.

Top Lufthansa Technik officials - Dr Thomas Stuger, senior vice-president and Dr Andreas Heizner, general manager aircraft maintenance - welcomed the Maltese media group at the bases and gave detailed insights into their airline set up, strategies and operations and maintenance as well as the role of LT Malta within the group.

The story all started when Lufthansa Technik AG, which was founded in 1995, were impressed with the quality and timely delivery of C-Checks carried out by Air Malta's engineering division on Lufthansa aircraft.

Lufthansa had been looking at other possible locations for the venture and Malta appeared to be the most likely spot to set up the project.

Its geographic location, close to potential markets from the Mediterranean and Northern African countries, the quality of work by Air Malta engineers and on time delivery proved to be determining factors apart from economic operating costs.

Dr Stuger said the three main factors that were determining in joining Air Malta for the venture were the production costs for the checks - LT Malta can offer prices which it cannot offer in Hamburg; the geographic position of Malta, having access to a wider market, and the quality of work and delivery in time.

Lufthansa was outward-looking. It always sought to expand in the belief that if it did not expand its competitors would, Dr Stuger said.

Lufthansa recently opened a subsidiary company in Budapest to carry out D-Checks, consisting of complete overhauls that will see the aircraft stripped and re-assembled. The D-Check takes up to three weeks or 17,000 man hours and is done every eight years.

Dr Heitzner said that apart from the C and D checks, airliners are subjected to other checks that are done weekly and a check after 350-650 flying hour according to the aircraft type.

"The maintenance schedule is our bible," said Dr Heitzner as he classified maintenance in three categories - preventive, condition monitoring and corrective.

"Lufthansa philosophy is safety, reliability and economy," he said.

Lufthansa Technik AG's turnover in 2001 was v4.10 billion with 340 customers, up from €3.55 billion and 320 customers the previous year.

August W. Henningsen, chairman of Lufthansa Technik AG, who had signed the agreement in Malta, said the number of aircraft in the pipeline was quite big making the programme for 2003 a very challenging one.

"But we are very positive and optimistic," he said.

Mr Henningsen said Germany was not a low cost country and therefore Lufthansa Technik AG had to take care of the cost to supply services to its airline customers. The airline must be competitive in all aspects including in its service, cost, quality and turn around time which everybody is asking for.

He said his company wanted a partner in Europe and Malta was on the edge of the European circle.

"We have worked on various projects with Air Malta over the years and C-Checks and modifications were carried out in Malta to our satisfaction," Mr Henningsen said.

It was also very important that the workshop was not intermixed with other works. LT Malta operations will be carried out in a hangar leased to the company by Air Malta at its base in Luqa.

Another positive factor was that workers are English speaking and they had shown that they are professional in their work and kept their promise in turn around time and quality.

"These were all ingredients for trust to built up to give a try to the venture," he added.

Louis Giordmaina, LT Malta's chief executive officer, recalled that when Lufthansa Technik AG had approached Air Malta saying they wanted to try the airline for its project, the German airline had requested three criteria - quality, punctual turn around time and cost effectiveness.

In fact, Mr Giordmaina added, Air Malta had initially worked on two Lufthansa aircraft and met all the criteria and in two weeks time Air Malta won another seven contracts.

On the basis of those contracts Air Malta also proved the commitment, workmanship, dedication and flexibility of the Maltese workers, he added.

In all, Air Malta has carried out a total of 12 C-Checks for LT and all workers who had been engaged on them will be working with the new company.

Air Malta had employed new workers and was investing money on extensive theoretical and practical training in Frankfurt in line with Lufthansa's philosophy, Mr Giordmaina said.