F R 2 - 9 8

Home | Update | LATEST ISSUE | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 2/98 LUFTHANSA AND BOMBARDIER OPEN NEW SERVICE CENTER by Norbert Burgner At the end of November, the new Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Service Center (LBAS) opened at the Berlin-Schönefeld airport. The maintenance center is a joint-venture between Lufthansa Technik AG and Bombardier Business Aircraft, according to its ownavowal the world's third largest aircraft manufacturer. 51 percent of LBAS belong to Lufthansa Technik and 49 percent are owned by Bombardier. Together, both companies have invested ten million Marks into the center. Another DM2,8 million for the venture was supplied by the state of Brandenburg. With these assets, a pre-war hangar, that was later used by the East German state carrier Interflug, and an adjoining office tract were completely renovated, a basic supply of spare parts was bought and the 22 employees were trained on the aircraft. Already in the medium-term, the center is supposed to generate 100 qualified jobs. Both companies base their positive forecast on the continuously high growth rates in the business aviation market. The maintenance center, to which Jim Ziegler, vice president and general manager of the Bombardier Aviation Services, concentrates on Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where currently almost 200 Learjets and Challengers are operating. Once certified, LBAS' services will include Bombardier's new super long-range business jet Global Express. The German customers (from the automobile and telecommunication business) will be pleased to hear that. Not very happy about the new situation are the former European maintenance centers of the US American/Canadian jets. While for example Aero-Dienst in Nürnberg and the Swiss company Jet Aviation are supposed to support the Bombardier service network in Europe, they can't quite understand the recent development. One reason being that Aero-Dienst and Jet Aviation, so far, had the right to accomplish STC work (supplemental type certificates) on airframes and avionics, this privilege is now reserved to the new center in Berlin. If former Aero-Dienst customers, for example, plan to fit a collision avoidance system into their aircraft, the Nürnberg based company will only be able to do so by setting up its own cost and labor intensive STC program. According to Aero-Dienst, this would be like handing its customers to LBAS on a platter. Not only in the view of Aero-Dienst this was coming very close to unfair competition and market influence. Therefore Aero-Dienst and Jet Aviation were considering legal steps against the Lufthansa/Bombardier joint-venture. However, it meanwhile looks like the players are pursuing a more friendly solution. Another source raised doubts about the basic legitimacy of LBAS' operational certification. The critics said that the new service center in Berlin would not even have a Class I avionics inspector at hand. How would the center then be able to grant supplemental type certificates, was one of the issues raised by the critics. Bernhard Conrad, so far head of the Lufthansa airliner maintenance center in Berlin-Schönefeld and now also director of the Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Aviation Services GmbH, replies: "To give out the STC regulation within the network of the service companies is company politics and Bombardier's own affair. There has been an issue for tenders that was known to the entire branch and we have won this competition. It is self-explanatory that we will hold on to a fair way with our branch colleagues. This is our politics. Concerning the legitimacy of our operation I can only say: the appropriate documents are available to everybody. Everyone who is interested in details can verify the correctness of our certification." Jim Ziegler reasons the exponation of the new center by saying: "Lufthansa Technik has an excellent reputation. Its know-how will help us to cope with the future challenge of offering a qualified service to our products." From page 23 of FLUG REVUE 2/98 Home | Update | LATEST ISSUE | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 2/98 Copyright 1998 by Motor-Presse Stuttgart. All rights reserved. Last updated January 9, 1998 FLUG REVUE, Ubierstr. 83, 53173 Bonn, Germany