Lufthansa Technik Group has reported a pre-tax profit of €295 million for 2008, an increase of 2.6% over 2007’s result.
The Group’s revenue increased by 4.1% to €3.7 billion, with the operating result improving by 2.6% to €299 million. The Lufthansa Technik Group comprises the 20 companies in which LHT has a stake greater than 50%. It does not therefore include operations such as Ameco Beijing, N3 Engine Overhaul Services and 10 others.
In 2008, Lufthansa Technik Group signed 502 new contracts, worth €3.2 billion over the entire period of the agreements. The Group’s airline parent remains its single biggest customer, with revenues from outside the Lufthansa Group contributing 59.6% last year, down from 61.2% in 2007.
Lufthansa Technik Group CEO, August Wilhelm Henningsen, noted that around 1,200 additional aircraft were parked in 2008. “For an MRO company, this means no servicing of these aircraft,” he commented. “And even with oil at $60 per barrel, annual airline losses are expected to reach $2.5 billion this year, with a conspicuous decline in demand and yields. All this acts as an alarm signal for Lufthansa Technik.”
Henningsen highlighted important contracts from last year, many of which came from the low-fare and regional market. Among these were: component support for Croatia Airlines’ Bombardier Q400s, for Aer Lingus’s A320 family and A330 fleets and for nasair’s A320s and Embraer 190/195s; servicing of the CFM56s on Norwegian’s growign fleet of Boeing 737s (which will number more than 50 when the airline’s current order is completed; and a Total Material Operations TMO contract with Sama Airlines, providing material and engineering services for the carrier’s Boeing 737s.
Lufthansa Technik will continue to increase its regional aircraft services, particularly with E-Jets, as other Lufthansa airline group carriers follow Air Dolomiti in operating these aircraft. Complementary to this, engine services subsidiary, Lufthansa Technik AERO Alzey is expected to be certified to maintain the CF34-10 shortly.
Further ahead, said Henningsen, LHT will develop capabilities to maintain the Bombardier CSeries, which the airline parent group has ordered, initially for operation by Swiss. A Lufthansa Technik Group company will also develop maintenance capabilities for the Pratt & Whitney PurePower engines which will power the aircraft family.
Bernie Baldwin, editor, Low-Fare & Regional Airlines/LARAnews.net
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