Another milestone has been reached in advance of the first passenger flight of an Lufthansa A350-900: After more than 1,700 working hours in Lufthansa Technik's maintenance hangar in Munich, the required cabin installations are complete and the Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) has been issued by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). The aircraft is thus technically cleared to enter scheduled service.
"A total of 20 employees from our team worked with colleagues from Munich, Hamburg and Frankfurt on the aircraft over the past three weeks," explains Sven Pawliska, who heads up the long-haul aircraft maintenance at Lufthansa Technik in Munich. "The installation of the Premium Economy Class and new self-service racks in the Business Class were among the upgrades that are most visible to passengers."
The layover was also used to train additional employees on the aircraft type. The Lufthansa Technik team has invested just under 10,000 course days in total in this training.
The maintenance concept was developed in close cooperation between the aircraft maintenance unit in Munich and Lufthansa Technik Engineering in Frankfurt. Engineers will relocate their offices from Frankfurt to Munich when A350 operations begin, and employees from Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Panasonic will be on hand to provide support during the first few weeks as well, so that a high level of technical reliability can be ensured from the outset.
Lufthansa Technik:
With some 35 subsidiaries and affiliates, the Lufthansa Technik Group is one of the leading providers of technical aircraft services in the world. Certified internationally as maintenance, production and design organization, the company has a workforce of more than 25,000 employees. Lufthansa Technik's portfolio covers the entire range of services for commercial and VIP/special mission aircraft, engines, components and landing gear in the areas of digital fleet support, maintenance, repair, overhaul, modification, completion and conversion as well as the manufacture of innovative cabin products.
