Lufthansa Technik has continued to strengthen through 2022 in line with big improvements at its parent group and its third-party airline customers.

With business volume back at 90% of the pre-crisis level, the MRO provider posted a pre-tax profit of €184 million ($184 million) for the three months to Sept. 30, following an earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of €22 million in the year-ago period.

Its adjusted EBIT of €177 million was a quarterly record and its parent has forecast that Lufthansa Technik is on course for its best-ever annual result.

The German MRO giant's nine-month EBIT was €337 million, which was better than any of Lufthansa’s passenger airlines and only exceeded by the cargo segment among all the group’s business units.

Revenue for the first nine months of the year rose 46% to €4 billion, thanks in part to a doubling of capacity at Lufthansa Group’s passenger airlines.

“Rising demand for flights, especially in the summer months, resulted in higher demand for maintenance and repair work, which had a positive impact on revenue and earnings, as did the U.S. dollar’s rise against the euro,” stated Lufthansa.

However, the company also noted inflationary pressures on materials and labor, as well as supply chain challenges.

In the most recent quarter, its parent group accounted for 27% of Lufthansa Technik’s revenues, compared with 23% a year earlier, when third-party customers took a greater share of sales.

In September, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported that talks with private equity firms about the sale of a minority stake in Lufthansa Technik could begin in December.

It added that the Lufthansa board was seeking a valuation of €6 billion to €8 billion for the MRO provider.