LUQA, Malta—Newly appointed Lufthansa Technik Malta (LTM) CEO Maria Cilia sees the addition of Boeing 787 base maintenance services to the MRO’s existing portfolio of Airbus narrowbody and widebody offering as a key strategic decision.
Speaking to Aviation Week in LTM’s facility at Malta International Airport on Oct. 5, Cilia says the choice to add 787 services was made about a year ago.
“The decision is driven by our vision for LTM to be the center of excellence for widebody aircraft, especially in view of the fact that the market for widebodies is changing,” she explains. “We know that the [Airbus] A340s will be phased out in the future—this will create more demand for Boeing 787 MRO.”
In September, Edelweiss Air became the latest Lufthansa Group airline to announce plans to retire its A340-300s. The leisure carrier’s five examples of the quadjet are to be replaced with former LATAM Group A350-900s by 2026, Edelweiss said.
Meanwhile, Lufthansa began revenue service with the 787-9 in late 2022 and has firm orders that will see its fleet of the Boeing twin-aisle reach 32, some of which may be allocated to other group airlines.
LTM is investing around €5 million ($5.25 million) to add the 787 to its portfolio as more of the aircraft enter the global fleet. “This is mainly driven by tooling and training for our employees at the beginning,” Cilia says. LTM is able to do the theoretical part of 787 training in Malta, but “as we don’t have the aircraft in our facility for practical technical training, we send our employees abroad, to locations such as Seattle, Singapore, Istanbul, or London,” she adds.
This is not Lufthansa Technik’s first foray into providing 787 MRO services in Europe. The MRO previously performed worked on the widebody at its site in Shannon, Ireland, but that facility was sold to the Atlantic Aviation Group in October 2021.
“Our first 787 customer here in Malta is planned for April 2024 and we have a lot of demand already coming up from potential customers,” Cilia says.
In terms of MRO market share in Europe for the widebodies it performs work on—excluding the 787—Cilia says LTM has around a 13.6% market share. She expects to increase that by adding the 787 to the portfolio, which includes the A330 and A350 as well as the A340.
Cilia is not ruling out that one day the A330neo could also become part of LTM’s widebody business. “We want to first focus on the 787,” she adds.
Lufthansa Technik Malta was founded in 2002 as a joint venture between Lufthansa Technik and Air Malta. “We have serviced 47 airline customers from Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America here in Malta,” Cilia says.
In addition to its widebody offering, LTM also performs base maintenance on A320- and A320neo-family aircraft.
At the company’s Malta International Airport base, it has around 500 employees. LTM’s spectrum of services has grown over the years to encompass extensive base maintenance services. Besides the facility in Malta, Lufthansa Technik also has overseas MRO bases in Manila (Philippines), Aguadilla (Puerto Rico), Sofia (Bulgaria), and Budapest (Hungary).
