Introducing the Airbus A380 into flight operations will place heavy demands not only on the airlines as operators but also on the MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) providers.
On the one hand, optimal and reliable servicing of the new super-Airbus with line maintenance, engine maintenance and components supply must be abso-lutely assured. On the other, timely participation in the spec’ing of the aircraft is nec-essary to ensure that its operation will be maintenance-friendly and as economical as possible. As one of the world’s leading MRO providers, Lufthansa Technik AG has been involved in both these aspects of the situation in order ultimately to be able to offer a complete portfolio of services to Lufthansa and to all other A380 operators.
“Even before the Airbus A380 takes to the air, Lufthansa Technik will be well equipped to meet the challenges posed by its daily flight operations. Together with other A380 operators and MROs we would like to achieve high synergies and are open to new forms of collaboration, because putting into operation the world’s larg-est airplane constitutes a challenge to the entire industry,” said August Wilhelm Hen-ningsen, executive-board chairman of Lufthansa Technik AG.
Since 2001, some dozen Lufthansa Technik engineers have been part of the cus-tomer focus groups involved in the spec’ing and development of the A380. Drawing on their experience with flight operations and aircraft maintenance, they have been helping to optimise the manufacturer’s design. An important aspect of this is the reli-ability of the individual systems.
Equally in demand are solutions that have worked well in the past as well as proposed innovative changes. Close collaboration be-tween the designers and operators benefits both when it comes to maintenance of the aircraft. The airlines and MRO providers will have to live for decades with what is decided in the development stage. They expect the aircraft to be designed so that all subsequent servicing of it can be done quickly, ergonomically and with the fewest possible specialised tools.
When the A380 is placed in service by Lufthansa in 2007, Lufthansa Technik in Frankfurt will have ready a special hangar with up to four bays, in which line main-tenance can be done. Also, the international destinations that the A380s will be fly-ing to will be ready to provide servicing at the request of the crew or of the technical staff.
In May 2004 a contract was signed with Lufthansa Technik and Air France Indus-tries, Europe’s two major MRO providers, for the supply of a complete line of components for the A380s. The goal of the two partners is to provide an economi-cal components supply not only for the future A380 fleets of Air France and Luf-thansa, which between them have placed orders for 25, but also for all A380 opera-tors throughout the world. In addition to aircraft maintenance and management of a components pool, the plan is to offer comprehensive servicing at the airlines’ A380 hubs as well as at all destinations that the A380s fly to.