With the launch of Lufthansa Technik Switzerland in Basel, Lufthansa Technik is expanding significantly its capacity to provide technical support for VIP and business aircraft in the European market. The almost 500 technicians and engineers who work in the engineering operation at Basel Mulhouse airport (which formerly belonged to Swiss) will now maintain and support not only regional aircraft of Swiss and other customers, but also larger VIP versions of the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 family.
"This modern operation in Basel with its excellent reputation as a high-quality provider will enable Lufthansa Technik to optimally meet the rise in demand for base maintenance in the European VIP market," said August Wilhelm Henningsen, Chairman of the Executive Board of Lufthansa Technik AG, at the formal opening of Lufthansa Technik Switzerland in Basel on Oct. 1. "The combination of our experience in this area and the proverbial Swiss quality will enable us to offer a top maintenance product to our VIP customers and also to our new customer, Swiss Air Lines, for its regional fleet."
With the continued support of regional aircraft und by adding the base maintenance product for business jets and VIP aircraft of the Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ) and Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) families to its portfolio, Lufthansa Technik Switzerland will be able to maintain the current workforce intact despite a decline in demand for maintenance work on Swiss's regional fleet (Avro 100) in the future. The company plans to invest in further modernization of the facilities and expects to create, depending on the order situation, up to 70 additional jobs over the next few years.
For Lufthansa Technik the new location offers the possibility of being able to meet the increasing demand for base maintenance for larger VIP and business aircraft up to the size of the ACJ and BBJ. This extra demand cannot be absorbed by Lufthansa Technik's Hamburg base alone.
Lufthansa Technik Switzerland's 7,500m2 hangar at Basel Mulhouse airport has up to now concentrated largely on regional aircraft belonging to Swiss and other customers, among them the AVRO RJ, BAE 146, Embraer 145, Saab 2000, Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. Over the last few years Lufthansa Technik had already outsourced a large number of maintenance contracts, especially for the larger types, to what at the time was the Swiss-owned operation in Basel.
The new company in the Lufthansa Technik Group will start out with Rainer Lindau as its Chief Executive Officer and Jan-Hendrik Labe as Chief Financial Officer. Rainer Lindau was previously Head of Aircraft Maintenance at Lufthansa CityLine, where from 2000 he headed up the technical operation, with responsibility as Nominated Postholder Technik. Jan-Hendrik Labe had been Head of Commercial & Logistics in the Technical Division of SWISS since 2005.
