Lufthansa Tecknik Malta is branching out to aircraft modification services, having won a major Lufthansa contract for modifications to its fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft.

The company will be modifying and repairing window skin belts and the aircraft fuselage crown of Boeing 737s in line with a mandatory Airworthiness Directive issued by the Federal Aviation Authority after inspections revealed a number of tiny cracks on the aircraft skin in the 1990s. The modifications are required on all Boeing 737s approaching the 50,000 flight cycle.

Company officials told Finance Minister Tonio Fenech during a tour of the company's hangars this morning that Lufthansa had shopped around as far away as China as well as Lufthansa Technik's own global network, before deciding that the modifications would be carried out in Malta.

The Maltese company had to date concentrated on aircraft maintenance (as against modifications).

The contract awarded to the Maltese company runs until the first quarter of 2014, by which time the company hopes to be carrying out similar work on Boeing 737s operated by other airlines.

Lufthansa Tecknik Malta has developed a customised concept for these modifications. Each aircraft requires over 10,000 man hours of work with downtime of some 30 days working throughout the week.

As a result of the contract, the company has decided to retain its old hangar, despite recently building new hangars.

The new line of activity will mean the engagement of 60 more workers, raising its workforce to 600 by the end of the year.