Cooperation

A380 joint venture between Lufthansa Technik and Air France Industries

“It is not the first time we have done this. In the ATLAS alliance with Sabena, Alitalia, Iberia and Air France we pooled our maintenance services between 1970 and 1990. Back then we were on the brink of introducing the first wide-bodied long-range aircraft (in other words the new Boeing 747, the Airbus A300 and the DC 10). At that time, all the airlines had only bought a limited number of aircraft. None of them was able on its own to invest in the full range of maintenance services,” said August Wilhelm Henningsen, Chairman of the Executive Board of Lufthansa Technik.

Tried-and-tested partnerships

True to form, in supplying components for the A380 Lufthansa is striving to achieve synergy effects and foster fruitful cooperation. In June 2005, Europe’s two major providers of Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul (MRO) services, Lufthansa Technik and Air France Industries, formed a joint venture. Both companies have a 50 per cent stake in the new company Spairliners GmbH, which has it corporate headquarters in Hamburg and an operations centre in Paris.

As part of this cooperation, the two MRO specialists Lufthansa Technik and Air France Industries have joined forces to supply components for the Airbus A380 worldwide – from overhaul and repairs through to the management of the spare parts inventory and the logistics involved. Spairliners will acquire and manage its own pool of A380 components.

Service concept – also for other airlines

In addition to cost-effective components supply for the future A380 fleets of Air France and Lufthansa, which together will operate a total of 25 aircraft, the cooperation partners also want to offer a full portfolio of maintenance services for equipment and components at airlines’ A380 hubs worldwide, as well as at all the destinations served by the wide-bodied aircraft.