New Customer for Lufthansa Technik: East Star Airlines

China's first private airline, China East Star Airlines, which commenced flying operations in May 2006 with three Airbus A319's, and Lufthansa Technik AG, the leading provider of maintenance, repair and overhaul services for aircraft, have signed a new Total Component Support TCS(R) contract. The contract will run for five years and is worth over $10 million.

East Star Airlines will be taking delivery of an additional six A320- family aircraft before the end of the year and plans to put a further eleven short-range Airbus aircraft into operation by 2008. Based in Wuhan, the Chinese start-up operator is the Lufthansa Technik Group's first A320 TCS(R) customer in China. East Star Airlines will be looked after by Lufthansa Technik Shenzhen (LTS), which receives extensive support from Lufthansa Technik in Hamburg. Lufthansa Technik Shenzhen will supply East Star Airlines with components from the A320-family component pool in Shenzhen.

Lufthansa Technik's continuing success in the Asian market is attributable not only to the quality of its work and its close partnerships but also to its local representation. Its "T product family" offerings, one of which is Total Component Support TCS(R), are especially popular. TCS(R) gives the airlines guaranteed access to one of the biggest component pools in the world, with regional service points on every continent of the globe. Cost-saving high-tech repairs are carried out at Lufthansa Technik's main base in Hamburg, which also serves as an innovation center for the development of new repair technologies.