Lufthansa Technik’s base maintenance workshops in Hamburg, Germany, which up to now primarily offered backbone support to Aircraft Base Maintenance, will in future offer full-scale modification services for commercial airlines directly from a single source. Headed up by Arne Bruhn, the workshops will work in close collaboration with the company’s engineering department, the Original Equipment Innovation division, and Lufthansa Technik’s VIP workshops.
For example, instead of having to buy expensive new seats, this in-house capacity will mean that Lufthansa Technik’s Hamburg shops can provide airlines with low-cost and fast cabin modifications. Thanks to the separate wiring workshop, complete electrical and electronic upgrades can also be completed quickly. Specialists in other disciplines can also adapt a cabin design to an airline’s new look using foils or paintwork.
Arne Bruhn explained, “Thanks to many years’ experience as an aircraft overhaul service provider, we have an expertise in the modification of existing aircraft cabin that is unique in the market. Against the background of ever-faster innovation cycles and growing passenger expectations, commercial airlines are confronted with the task of finding cost-effective solutions for the long-term development of their cabin product. In this area we see ourselves as the ideal partner. Together with our colleagues from engineering, innovation and VIP completion we can manufacture the components for a modified cabin within the shortest time. We are just as successful in the development services we offer for individual components as we are in manufacturing prototypes in our workshops.”
The workshops recently designed and manufactured over 1,000 new LED flashlight holders for Lufthansa German Airlines that can simply click into place in the same holders that previously held more traditional lamps, thus saving re-equipment costs. At the moment the teams are building components in large volumes for economy cabins that are to be upgraded, ranging from centrally supplied entertainment systems to stand-alone computing power directly in the seat. This modification entails extensive structural work plus complete rewiring.