LHT COO Talks Strategy, Expansions And €10 Billion Revenue Target

Lufthansa Technik Chief Operating Officer Harald Gloy details to Lee Ann Shay changes the company expects in the next few years.

What is your outlook for the rest of this year and 2026? We are in an industry where demand is rising, so we are positive about it. We still face some of the challenges that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as supply chain disruptions, but some things are improving, such as finding new employees. We are on track to fill our open positions with qualified people in Hamburg, [Germany,] where we employ around 13,000, as well as at most other places in our network.

Lufthansa Technik launched various recruitment and workforce development initiatives over the last several years. Was there one that stood out for its success? Success comes from a combination of initiatives. One big pillar is our apprenticeship program in Germany, which attracts young people. We have had this program for years and have not discontinued it, even during the pandemic, so we were always present in the market. This year alone we hired more than 300 young people for their apprenticeships. However, it does take time to gain experience, so I don’t want to say it is just the number of recruits. Our industry needs people with experience, which takes several years to acquire, so that’s why I would say we are positive and confident but still have a ways to go.

Do you pair apprentices with experienced mentors? Apprentices first go through a dedicated program where they are mentored by a senior technician. After the apprenticeship, if they come into MRO production, we offer pairings with more experienced people. Because of this success, we now offer such pairings throughout the company, including in administration. We also offer reverse mentorships, where more senior employees learn from younger ones. I and many others are taking advantage of it because you can learn so much. We also created a program for senior experts, for people who retired but were saying, “Why can’t I continue working part-time?” This is new in our company. I know that this is more common in other countries, but in Germany, usually if you retire, you’re retired. But because of this new program, it’s now possible to work part-time.

Lufthansa Technik is adding shops in Canada and Portugal in the next two years. What is the status of each? Is there additional capacity or capabilities that you hope to add to other shops in the network? We recently broke ground for the engine workshop in Calgary, [Alberta]. We plan to do smaller engine maintenance workscopes, including quick-turn events within our Mobile Engine Services. We have hired a lot of people there already who are training at a local school with which we partnered. We are fully on track to service the CFM International Leap engine for Canadian and U.S. customers at our Calgary facility. It’s good to have WestJet as a first customer for that facility, but it will not be the only one.

We have a lot of capacity and capability projects. One of the biggest is to build a full-blown airframe component and engine parts company just a little bit south of Porto in Portugal. We are building the facility and hired people to go through theoretical and practical training while the facility is being constructed. We will eventually hire about 700 people. This is a very big project for us.

Capacity expansion, however, is not limited to these two locations. We are adding additional services at existing locations, too. For instance, we are adding a Boeing 787 line for base maintenance and cabin modification work in Malta and component and engine MRO capacity in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the U.S. Last year, we decided to extend the Tulsa facility, but while this extension is underway, we have already decided to do the next step immediately, right after. The demand is there, the workforce is available, and we are very happy with our operation in Tulsa. There has been a lot of support for us locally and from the state of Oklahoma.

One of our new technical capabilities there is repairing integrated drive generators, which is a major technological step and requires infrastructure and test stands. We also increased our Mobile Engine Services there for legacy engines, such as the CFM56, but also we’re doing smaller workscopes for the Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engine. While the new Calgary [site] will be the primary Leap Mobile Engine Services location, we expect good collaboration between these two shops as well as our Montreal operation, which also provides Mobile Engine Services.

In Hamburg, we are investing close to half a billion euros [$584 million] in infrastructure. That includes a completely new workshop and office building for VIP completions and maintenance. We are very soon opening a completely new five-story hydraulics workshop, and there is the refurbished hangar for CFM Leap maintenance. So we are refurbishing or replacing older infrastructure in Hamburg as well as adding capacity.

We are also looking on a global scale because we see ourselves as a global player. We already are strong in [Europe, the Middle East and Africa] and in North America. In the Asia-Pacific, we have base maintenance facilities in Shenzhen, [China,] and Manila, [Philippines,] but there is room for us to grow further.

More than we did in the past, we are also looking at Latin America. There is a good customer base, so now the question is: How do we stabilize it? I think there’s growth potential there.

Do you have any plans to expand your component repair facility in Dubai? We will continue to gradually increase capabilities in Dubai, which is our regional headquarters for the Gulf region. Looking at the region, we are taking steps to see if we should add our first customer service contact on-site or have some kind of presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We already have a lot of business there.

What about India? Lufthansa Technik announced in 2007 that it was going to set up a base maintenance facility there and then decided not to. We do have a company called Luft­hansa Technik Services India. It’s not an MRO production company, but rather it provides customer service and shared services for the Indian market. We have increased our customer base step by step in a steady way. Many people talk about India as a growth market for MRO, but sometimes the talk is a bit hyped. From my perspective, it’s good to grow there step by step. Would we set up a production facility there? It’s something to look at, but for right now, not more than that for us—but I wouldn’t exclude it.

Are there any other investment priorities outside of what you mentioned already? The Portugal facility is the biggest one, but we are always looking at what’s available in the market. For example, in August, we acquired an 80% share in a small company in Tulsa called ETP Thermal [Dynamics], which specializes in MRO services for heat exchangers and oil and fuel coolers. We are looking for companies like this, which we call pearls, that we can either partner with or acquire to add competencies.

How do you optimize and leverage Lufthansa Technik’s global footprint? One thing is that it provides customers alternatives. Some customers want their work done close by, but others say, “It does not matter where you produce it as long as you meet the [key performance indicators].” Having component workshops in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Tulsa, Shenzhen and other locations allows us to balance workloads or compensate for regional restrictions that come up. That makes us more resilient and allows us to look for the best conditions for particular work, including for cost management.

How is Aviatar’s market share, and how is artificial intelligence (AI) affecting the portfolio of digital products? Aviatar is part of our digital ecosystem, which includes the Swiss-AS AMOS MRO software and the Flydocs record-keeping system. We can offer something comprehensive to customers or just one of the elements, because sometimes customers want to combine a piece of the ecosystem with their classical MRO products. We put in a lot of effort to stay on top of developments in the ecosystem. AI is an important ingredient but not the only one. There’s still a lot of room to digitalize—even for classical digitalized processes—in our industry.

Is Lufthansa Technik completely digital for MRO, or does it still use some paper records or job cards? There are still some paper processes, but it is continually going down. A lot of areas have been completely digitalized, but we are not 100% paperless yet.

Which ones still use paper? Some base maintenance shops still use paper job cards, but we recently took the next step of digitalizing base maintenance completely. It will start next year in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Lufthansa Technik has said its Ambition 2030 plan is to reach €10 billion in annual revenue. How are you going to meet it? Nearly all of the projects we have just talked about play into this, because one core element of Ambition 2030 is to increase our global presence. Engine and component maintenance already, by numbers, are the strongest pillars and will contribute the most going forward. The digital ecosystem will also contribute to revenue as well as contribute with cost reductions generated from their use. We will also have areas that will increase, such as our defense business. Having announced a little more than €4 billion of revenue for the half-year of 2025, we are on a good path to reach it.

What are you biggest risks? Are you concerned about U.S. tariffs and the political climate? Until recently, I would have said workforce. The shortage is not completely over, but we are making really good progress. And employee feedback is positive. But to answer your question, I would say knowing what is coming next politically—on a global scale, not just in the U.S. If one looks how political leaders develop and who is partnering with whom or not, this has always influenced business, but it used to influence business more indirectly. We see a trend for direct influence or interference today, which makes business less predictable in general. This is a field of risk for global businesses like us.