Servicing aircraft

Malta gets big in MRO, from FlightGlobal.com:

Politically, Malta might be a new member of the European Union, but geographically the island is further south than parts of Africa. The convenience of this access point, sited between the two continents as well as within reach of the Middle East, helped drive Lufthansa Technik's decision to establish a joint-venture maintenance operation on Malta in 2003.

Its faith in the potential demand appears to have been justified. Initially set up to perform C-checks on Airbus A320 aircraft, and later Boeing 737s, Lufthansa Technik Malta is to expand into widebody D-check servicing under an extensive investment programme. This entails constructing an entirely new maintenance station - with two widebody and two narrowbody bays - to accommodate all of the company's operations. On 5 July at Luqa, near Malta International Airport, work on the centre formally began.

Although the new complex will cover an area of 27,000m² (291,000ft²), and would be able to handle the ultra-large Airbus A380, Lufthansa Technik Malta chief executive Louis Giordimaina says that the numbers should not detract from the real focus of the facility - to specialise in servicing Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft. There is, he says, a need to ensure that Lufthansa Technik can provide resources within its network to deal with heavy maintenance on the types.

Lufthansa, which has 55 A330 and A340s, will be the single largest customer. But Giordimaina says the venture aims to replicate the 50:50 balance with external customers characteristic of its narrowbody business, whose clients include Alitalia, Eurocypria,Spanair, Travel Service and Windjet."When it comes to the widebodies it will be a similar scenario," he states. "There'll be one line dedicated to Lufthansa and one to third-party customers."

Giordimaina is a former chief engineer of Air Malta, Lufthansa Technik's partner in the company. Air Malta originally had a 49% share but has since allowed the German firm to take the lead on investment, with the result that the carrier's stake has been diluted. With the 55 million ($75.7million) development of the widebody facility, Lufthansa Technik will raise its stake in the Maltese venture to 92%...