Lufthansa Technik Switzerland to support regional and VIP aircraft in Basel

Hamburg (ots) -

- Investment in modernization and new products
- Growth expected in VIP maintenance

With the launch of Lufthansa Technik Switzerland in Basel,
Lufthansa Technik is expanding significantly its capacity to provide
technical support for VIP and business aircraft in the European
market. The almost 500 technicians and engineers who work in the
engineering operation at Basel Mulhouse airport which formerly
belonged to Swiss will now maintain and support not only regional
aircraft of Swiss and other customers but also larger VIP versions of
the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 family.

"This modern operation in Basel with its excellent reputation as a
high-quality provider will enable Lufthansa Technik to optimally meet
the rise in demand for base maintenance in the European VIP market,"
said Chairman of the Executive Board of Lufthansa Technik AG, August
Wilhelm Henningsen, at the formal opening of Lufthansa Technik
Switzerland in Basel on 1 October. "The combination of our experience
in this area and the proverbial Swiss quality will enable us to offer
a top maintenance product to our VIP customers and also to our new
customer, Swiss Air Lines, for its regional fleet."

With the continued support of regional aircraft und by adding the
base maintenance product for business jets and VIP aircraft of the
Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ) and Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) families to
its portfolio, Lufthansa Technik Switzerland will be able to maintain
the current workforce intact despite a decline in demand for
maintenance work on Swiss's regional fleet (Avro 100) in future. But
in fact the company will go further than that: it plans to invest in
further modernization of the facilities and expects to create,
depending on the order situation, up to 70 additional jobs over the
next few years.

For Lufthansa Technik the new location offers the possibility of
being able to meet the increasing demand for base maintenance for
larger VIP and business aircraft up to the size of the ACJ and BBJ.
This extra demand cannot be absorbed by Lufthansa Technik's Hamburg
base alone.

Lufthansa Technik Switzerland's 7,500m2 hangar at Basel Mulhouse
airport has up to now concentrated largely on regional aircraft
belonging to Swiss and other customers, among them the AVRO RJ, BAE
146, Embraer 145, Saab 2000, Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. Over the
last few years Lufthansa Technik had already outsourced a large
number of maintenance contracts, especially for the larger types, to
what at the time was the Swiss-owned operation in Basel.

The new company in the Lufthansa Technik Group will start out with
Rainer Lindau as its Chief Executive Officer and Jan-Hendrik Labe as
Chief Financial Officer. Rainer Lindau was previously Head of
Aircraft Maintenance at Lufthansa CityLine, where from 2000 he headed
up the technical operation, with responsibility as Nominated
Postholder Technik. Jan-Hendrik Labe had been Head of Commercial &
Logistics in the Technical Division of SWISS since 2005.

Lufthansa Technik

With 30 production facilities and over 25,000 staff worldwide, the
Lufthansa Technik Group is one of the leading independent providers
of aircraft-related technical services. In 2007 the company achieved
total sales of EUR3.6 billion. Lufthansa Technik is licensed
internationally as a repair, production and development organization.
The company's portfolio covers the entire service spectrum of
maintenance, repair, overhaul, modification and conversion, engines
and components.

Originaltext: Lufthansa Technik AG
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presscontact:

Lufthansa Technik AG
Corporate Communications
Weg beim Jaeger 193
22335 Hamburg, Germany
Phone +49-40-5070-3667
Fax +49-40-5070-8534
press.pr@lht.dlh.de
www.lufthansa-technik.com/media

Corporate Headquarters:
Lufthansa Technik AG, Hamburg
Registration:
Amtsgericht Hamburg HRB 56865
Chairman of the Supervisory Board:
Stefan Lauer
Executive Board:
August Wilhelm Henningsen (Chairman)
Dr. Peter Jansen
Uwe Mukrasch
Dr. Thomas Stueger