Lufthansa facility for Hyderabad

Lufthansa Technik, leading provider of maintenance, repair and overhaul of airplanes, components and engines, has decided to set up a new facility in Hyderabad to support the growing aviation sector in India. The new facility will be located in the Greenfield Rajiv Gandhi International Airport coming up at Shamshabad, near here. Lufthansa Technik will team up with GMR Group, infrastructure developer and the concessionaire of airports in Hyderabad and Delhi. The facility will provide base maintenance services for the Airbus A 320 family and Boeing 737 aircraft, including 737 Classic and 737 NG (next generation), according to August W. Henningsen, Chairman of the Executive Board of Lufthansa Technik AG.

Announcing the new facility at a press conference here on Friday, he said the investment in the two-bay hangar and its state-of-art workshops would exceed Rs. 100 crores (20 million USD) in the initial phase. Construction of the 20,000-square metre facility would begin this year. The facility is expected to commence operations by 2008-end with two parallel lines to serve the maintenance requirements of the rapidly growing narrow body fleet of Indian carriers. "With more than 400 airplanes on order, the Indian aviation market is one of the fastest growing in the world. The new facility will complement the existing MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) support being provided to new and the existing fleets in India," he added.

The company requires 400 highly qualified personnel once the facility is fully operational. "Plan is to concentrate recruitment within Andhra Pradesh," designated Managing Director of the new company Dominik Wiener-Silva said. Chief Operating Officer, GMR Hyderabad International Limited, T. Srinagesh said the international airport would be functional from March, 2008,when the first flight was expected to take off. Replying to a question, Mr. Henningsen said Lufthansa Technik had signed a Total Component Support contract with Air Deccan and was sole provider of support services to Kingfisher Airlines. It had concluded contracts with Jet Airways, Go Air, Air India, Indian and Air Sahara.

Courtesy: PTI

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