Lufthansa Cargo Company

Lufthansa Technik has a mission: Keep 'em flying. The company, a subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa, has six business units that keep commercial airline and private business customers ready for flight: Maintenance provides around-the-clock maintenance repair and overhaul services; Overhaul specializes in intensive aircraft overhauls; Engines focuses on scheduled engine overhauls; Components and Logistics provides logistics and spare parts distribution services; Landing Gear ensures safe and soft landings; and VIP Aircraft installs VIP jet interior customizations. Lufthansa Technik, which has over 50 affiliates and subsidiaries, counts about 650 customer airlines worldwide. European revenues represent around 70%. Customers include aircraft leasing companies, as well as airlines and VIP jet operators. To offer its discriminating customers even more options, Lufthansa Technik created a joint venture with Panasonic Avionics in fall 2010. The resulting company, named "idair," will develop and make in-flight communications, as well as entertainment and cabin management systems for high-end VIP aircraft. Clearly, there is call for the companies offerings, as it signed over 500 contracts in 2008; the companies contracted include Aer Lingus, Norwegian Air Shuttle, and National Air Services in Saudi Arabia, to name a few. The company made headway in the North American market by signing a five-year contract with UPS for the overhaul of their MD-11 engines. The company also assumed the entire technical support for the GE and CFM56 engines of all of the Qantas fleets. Additionally, Lufthansa Technik Switzerland was launched in the same year, as well as a new company for aircraft overhaul in Bulgaria. Lufthansa Technik was flying with the jet stream in the first half of 2008, but hit a market industry air pocket the second half of the year. Along with the financial and economic crisis felt worldwide, high oil prices added an additional headwind to its flight path. The MRO market decreased for the first time in over 15 years; however, the company mitigated for the losses by streamlining its production, making strategic acquisitions, and customizing service products, thus expanding its growth.  The company owns over 30 technical maintenance and overhaul facilities around the world; the largest are in Berlin, Frankfurt (opened in 2008), Hamburg, and Munich. The largest hangar is in Beijing where technical work is conducted on the Airbus A380s.