A booming maintenance market has been reflected in updated guidance for 2023 from the world’s biggest MRO provider.
Lufthansa Technik (LHT) now expects its pre-tax profit (adjusted EBIT) for this year to beat the record €554 million ($588 million) posted in 2022, having previously forecast a similar result.
“The aviation sector is recovering much faster than expected,” said William Willms, chief financial officer at LHT. “This is benefiting us because we are succeeding in exploiting many of the resulting opportunities for us thanks to the great commitment of our employees.”
In the first nine months of the year, adjusted EBIT was up 7% to €459 million ($484 million)—itself a record for the period—despite currency headwinds. Revenue was up 20% to €4.8 billion ($5.09 billion) for the first nine months.
Willms highlighted a strong contribution from LHT’s component business, noting that the company has “better material availability compared with competitors.”
As well as investing in materials, LHT has tackled the aftermarket’s widespread labor shortages with a hiring drive, pushing its headcount from 19,800 in June 2022 to almost 22,300 now.
“Obviously, managing the influx of such a high number of new employees is a strenuous task for many in the company, but these efforts will pay off for us,” said Willms.
The company expects significant volumes of work going forward. It signed 580 new contracts this year by Sept. 30, which compares with around 700 total in 2022.
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