Despite its newly announced success in landing a first Boeing 787 deal and another 747-8, Hamburg-based VIP completions specialist Lufthansa Technik is radiating cold realism about some of the most prestigious projects that could come its way.
“The latest 787 delays mean the likely completion slot could slip from 2015-16 to 2017-18,” Walter Heerdt, senior VP for marketing and sales, said here yesterday. “However, we’ve not seen any potential 787 customers walk away because of the delays, and perhaps we’ll know more about the true state of 787 slots by the time of NBAA in the autumn.”
He was similarly hard-nosed about the biggest deal of them all – the VIP Airbus A380 ordered last year by Saudi Prince Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Alsaud. But he was guarded about the runners and riders in the race for this $100 million-plus contract: “It’s all a matter of having a big enough hangar and the right capacity and skills in the back shops.” But most observers see it as a straight contest between Lufthansa Technik and Jet Aviation Basel.
But Heerdt makes it clear his company would not try to win the business at all costs. “We’re fully ready to complete and support a VIP A380,” he says. “But it would be very difficult for us to fit an A380 into our facilities before 2012, and we don’t want to take an aircraft in and then park it in front of the hangar. We’re not going to take risks with our reputation, and that’s true of any project, whatever the size of the aircraft.”
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Source: Flight Daily News
