Chris Kjelgaard

Germany’s Lufthansa Technik is set to unveil its VIP cabin concepts for the Airbus A350 XWB and new narrowbodies. Walter Heerdt, LHT’s senior v-p for VIP and special mission aircraft services, said the VIP cabin concepts were “modular…and modern high-end designs.” Details will be released soon for narrowbodies and also for the A350, he confirmed.

 


LHT already offers an A350 commercial-cabin completion, Heerdt noted. He said LHT also has the capability to perform Boeing 787 cabin installations and already has a “large number of 787 aircraft from customers around the world under contract” for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services. This suggests LHT soon could consider adding VIP 787 completion and MRO work to its service portfolio, as well as VIP A350 work.

 


Heerdt revealed that beyond the large VIP and special-mission aircraft completion and MRO business LHT already has, the company is working on “new services, some together with partners, which will further increase the portfolio [VIP] customers can select from.”

 


These services are being developed because “we see an increasing share of younger customer groups,” said Heerdt. “In parallel, awareness of lifestyle is rising. Some major topics here are well-being on board, and time saving. This leads to new design ideas [and] new IFE and connectivity solutions.”

 


LHT performs all its widebody VIP aircraft completions at its Hamburg main base. The company normally performs narrowbody completions both at Hamburg and at its U.S. BizJet subsidiary at Tulsa (Oklahoma) International Airport. However, LHT recently decided to temporarily suspend activity at the BizJet completions facility, “reacting to the present market situation,” according to Heerdt. “As a consequence, all outfitting is presently performed at Hamburg.”

 


Heerdt said LHT offers “the entire spectrum of MRO and completion services for VIP and special-mission aircraft.” Services include outfitting, refurbishment, modifications and MRO services, “making use of the experience the company gathers from its worldwide base and aircraft types under contract.”

 


In all, LHT has more than 3,700 aircraft–including examples of types not operated by Lufthansa–belonging to some 800 customers under contract for MRO and other services. This has provided LHT with “huge experience” in providing aircraft services.

 


For VIP and special-mission aircraft, not only do LHT’s services include completions and MRO for large VIP aircraft, but also modifications and major refurbishments on Bombardier Learjet, Challenger and Global business jets. This work is performed at Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services, a Berlin-located joint venture LHT has with Bombardier and ExecuJet.

 


To date LHT has performed VIP completions on some 60 narrowbody commercial aircraft and 30 widebodies, according to Heerdt. Among the VIP narrowbodies completed are more than 20 Airbus A318 Elite aircraft. In the past few months LHT has delivered two VIP-completed Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental aircraft and it has a third VIP 747-8I undergoing completion.

 


Over the years LHT has performed so much completion and MRO work on VIP Boeing 747s that Heerdt said it serves as the industry’s competence center for VIP work on all 747 models, including the 747-8I.

 


To date LHT has not performed any completions or other VIP work on any Embraer Lineage 1000 aircraft, but the list of commercial aircraft types on which it has performed VIP work is long. Its first VIP-modification contract came in the mid-1950s: temporary modification of a Lockheed L-1049G Super Constellation for the then West German Chancellor, Konrad Adenauer. The work included installing an improvised bed and a separate working area, which included a table and several ‘Sleeperette’ seats.

 


Since then, according to Heerdt, LHT’s VIP and special-mission business has outfitted and serviced most Boeing commercial-aircraft types (LHT still holds contracts for work on VIP aircraft of various 747 models, including 747SPs) and most Airbus types also.

 


LHT has not yet worked on any VIP Airbus A330s or A340-600s and Heerdt confirmed it has not worked on a VIP A380, “although LHT has full capability for MRO and outfitting” the Airbus double-decker. (Although, years ago, orders were placed for two VIP A380s from Middle Eastern customers, the orders were subsequently canceled.)

 


The company has worked extensively on special-mission aircraft. A few years ago, for NASA and the German Aerospace Center, it modified and delivered the 747SP-mounted SOFIA flying astronomical observatory.

 


Another job was modifying an A310 for zero-G missions for Novespace. For the Luftwaffe, LHT modified A310s to become Multi Role Tanker Transport aircraft. In 2014, the company converted an A340-300 to become an evacuation aircraft for highly contagious patients. The aircraft was delivered to the German Federal Foreign Office for use on humanitarian missions.

 


Heerdt said LHT’s VIP-aircraft business contributes to the company not only in terms of the revenues and profits it generates, but also because “many products and materials are used and certified for the first time in such aircraft.”

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