“In spite of the generally satisfying development of global aviation, the difficult situation of many airlines, particularly in Europe, and the increasing availability of MRO services around the world continue to challenge our industry and increase price pressures,” said August Wilhelm Henningsen, chairman of the Executive Board of Lufthansa Technik, on March 18 in Hamburg. “Against this backdrop, the Lufthansa Technik Group has developed very well. Our good order situation and our successful cost reductions have enabled us to boost our operating result significantly.”
Currently Lufthansa Technik says it has 770 customers and a total of 2,800 aircraft. In 2013, the company won 47 new customers and concluded more than 450 new contracts, as reported at their annual press conference to release company data.
LHT said 2013 was also marked by the expansion of their service portfolio, particularly for the Boeing 787, as well as significantly extended partnerships with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and preparations for the new Boeing 777-9X and Airbus A350 aircraft types and their engines and components.
“In addition to the good order situation, it was above all the significant cost reductions resulting from the SCORE (the company’s stringent restructuring efforts) program’s measures that made our excellent result in 2013 possible,” said Dr. Peter Jansen, Lufthansa Technik CFO, at the press conference. He emphasized that a restrictive approach to new appointments and offers of early retirement for special groups of employees as well as the closure and sale of companies led to a reduction in the average number of employees to 19,927, down 2.2 percent.
As the most important package of measures in the future, Jansen mentioned the remaining SCORE projects, which will be implemented in 2014 and 2015 and are expected to contribute an additional 350 million euros. “We’re now halfway through the program and have achieved almost 50 percent of the planned impact on earnings, but sustaining improvements in efficiency in the long term is more difficult than achieving initial successes.”
The company closed Lufthansa Technik Switzerland due to a collapse in demand, and the closing of Lufthansa Technik Airmotive Ireland in Dublin was initiated at the end of the year due to strongly declining revenues and inadequate market opportunities.
In contrast, Lufthansa Technik Budapest expanded its capacities and Lufthansa Technik Malta extended its capacity for parallel work on several long-haul aircraft through a hangar enlargement. In Asia, Lufthansa Technik Philippines is expanding its portfolio of services for the A380 and Lufthansa Technik Shenzhen has opened two new hangars in order to be able to offer new component, engine and logistics services. And in Hamburg, the newest Lufthansa Technik network company, Lumics, a joint venture with McKinsey, has begun its consulting activities, which are not limited to the aviation sector.
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