August Henningsen, CEO, Lufthansa Technik AG

AM: How big is your operation?

Henningsen: We have about 1,000 aircraft worldwide under contract, with at least one of the "T" products applicable, for engines, components and such.

AM: What is the biggest pressure on maintenance right now? Henningsen: High fuel prices are leading to a situation of reduced margins in an industry already under pressure, and that pressure will continue on providers of maintenance.

AM: What about fears of a growing shortage of maintainers to do the work?

Henningsen: This is a real problem. For example, we see a looming shortage in India, the Middle East and Asia. To establish training schools in these countries could be one way of countering the problem.

We believe strongly in doing our own Lufthansa Technik training, both in the classroom and on an apprenticeship basis. We have schools in Germany, England, China, the Philippines, and Taiwan, which provide training up to the advanced level.

AM: With the "internationalization" of maintenance, is there a language problem?

Henningsen: The good thing is that everybody is learning English. Here or there you need translations of the job cards. Now, for this purpose you need translators. It's crucial that people be selected who understand not only the language but also the context, in terms of the task to be done and how it fits within the maintenance planning process.

AM: With today's computerized and "electrified" jets, is software maintenance an issue?

Henningsen: What we have found is that hardware in the system often causes software problems. A huge investment in test equipment is necessary to cull out failures caused by heat, faulty circuits and such.

AM: What about electrical wiring?

Henningsen: The state of wiring very much depends on where the aircraft was operated and how it was maintained.

And by the way, the fleetwide wiring inspections recently proposed by the Federal Aviation Administration [see AM, March, p. 24] call for close visual inspections, but not for disaggregation and inspections of the bundles. This may be a good thing, as things could be made worse by opening up a bundle; the mere act of opening a bundle may erode fragile insulation.

AM: Regarding the airframe itself, Lufthansa Technik is not in that business in the U.S. Why?

Henningsen: Structural overhaul is a very competitive business and there is a bit of overcapacity in the industry, especially in North America. Overhauling an airframe needs a lot of man-hours, which costs. We do airframe overhaul in Asia, with large facilities in China and the Philippines, where the labor costs less.

AM: Composite materials are replacing more aluminum structure, and now in primary structure like wings. Do composite introduce new challenges?

Henningsen: I'm very optimistic, maybe because I've been a glider pilot for many years, and gliders are made of carbon and glass fiber, which is what is being used now in transport category airplanes.

We also have two experience bases to draw from. The military has been using composites for years, and in the commercial realm we've had flaps, tails and fairings made of composites. We have a body of knowledge to take composites maintenance to the next step.

AM: Why was the Total Material Operations (TMO) program launched?

Henningsen: This is a risk reduction program for our customers. An airline today builds up an inventory of materials and so forth. But if fleet size is reduced, you have to reduce the overhead. We can solve that problem, of wrong or excessive material, for an individual airline by spreading the risk across a wider base. We can replace all the materials management function within an airline. It's a radical shift, away from the traditional customer/provider relationship.