Effective immediately, Lufthansa Technik AG can offer customers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) airworthiness services for the Boeing
747-400 und 747-8 aircraft types as a CAMO (Continuing Airworthiness Management Organisation). Lufthansa Technik received the relevant approval from UAE's General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) for its Hamburg location on July 1, 2012.
The background to this step is a change in the legal framework for aircraft owners whose aircraft are registered in the UAE: now, both commercial and non-commercial operators, like private aircraft owners, are obligated to have their own CAMOs or to commission a CAMO such as Lufthansa Technik.
For this reason, Lufthansa Technik applied to the GCAA for approval as a CAMO before the legal change took effect, and supplied all the necessary documentation and evidence for this step. Provisional approval was granted on the basis of the Part M approval already issued to Lufthansa Technik by the German Federal Aviation Office; in order to grant final approval, the GCAA will conduct an audit in Hamburg sometime during the next few months as soon as CAMO tasks are performed for the first UAE customer.
Lufthansa Technik sees great advantages in being a CAMO for VIP customers in particular. Thomas Kuhn, Director Engineering Services from VIP Maintenance Services, explains them: "The customer can concentrate purely on flight operations. All the regulatory issues having to do with continuing airworthiness can be left up to the specially trained employees on our Service Engineering staff. In case of sufficient demand we will be able to offer CAMO services also for all other Boeing and all Airbus aircraft types which are registered in the UAE. The scope of our Part-M approval gives us the possibility to obtain the appropriate UAE approval on short notice, too."
The CAMO activities can include keeping track of all necessary maintenance checks or following up on and implementing regulatory requirements. Among them are also regular airworthiness reviews.
These checks can also be offered to customers who operate their aircraft commercially. In addition to CAMO approval from the German Federal Aviation Office, Lufthansa Technik holds approvals from other aviation authorities, including those of the Cayman Islands and Bermuda.
Lufthansa Technik
The Lufthansa Technik Group, with more than 30 subsidiaries and associates and over 26,000 employees worldwide, is one of the leading manufacturer-independent providers of technical services for the aviation industry. Its portfolio encompasses the entire spectrum of services for commercial aircraft: maintenance, repair, overhaul, modification and conversion, engines and components.
