Integrated Parking Services –flexible support for changing needs

At the height of the corona crisis in April, 19,000 aircraft were parked across the world. Fortunately, the aviation industry has made a slight recovery since then and air traffic, especially in Asia and Europe, increased over the summer. Approximately 1/3 of the existing worldwide aircraft fleet is back in operation. That said, the new Covid-19 outbreak is reversing the modest gains made. Travel restrictions are once again on the rise, fueling uncertainty and adversely affecting the industry as a whole. The result: more aircraft are once again being parked and both airlines and aircraft operators are once again confronted with crucial questions like:

·     Where can I park my assets in these uncertain times and yet secure access?

·     Does it make sense to move aircraft into deep storage?

·     How can I reactivate my fleet in the fastest, most flexible way possible?

·     What will be the right fleet size once reactivated?

·     Which aircraft type will be most cost-efficient for my future plans?

We at Lufthansa Technik know that finding answers to these questions remains challenging and decision parameters continuously change. Aside from cost reduction, flexibility has become a key driver in our business. Our Integrated Parking Services combines all these aspects, including Transition, Parking, Reactivation, Storage and Aircraft Recycling/Retirement services.

If desired, we offer a comprehensive support package, including the entire transition process right down to the smallest detail, complete with a professional project and interface management. We also help organize Phase-Out/Part-Out Features if, for example, a customer wants to sell a self-owned aircraft. All projects are overseen, managed and directed with maximum efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Other service areas in which we are active include document preparation for buyers, work package development and aircraft neutralization. We can also help should it become necessary to terminate a leasing contract early. In such cases, we offer contract analyses and comprehensive consulting for smooth-running negotiations.

CAMO for transition management

 We are also capable of taking over the entire CAMO responsibility as a transition management service for all temporary periods when the aircraft is not operated under an Air Operator Certificate. This service focuses on the banks & lessors needed within these transitions. Thanks to our close and highly cooperative customer relationships with all major lessors worldwide, we understand the needs and requirements of both sides. Moreover, with our extended CAMO privileges, we not only carry out Continuing Airworthiness Management with temporary registration but also conduct ferry, check and acceptance flights including “Permits to Fly” if required. We have a wide field of experience concerning all kinds of clarifications concerning import, export or transfer scenarios within the EU. Of course, we have a qualified staff, whose combined expertise allows us to perform airworthiness reviews.

Integrated parking solutions

 Our integrated parking solution ranges from standard parking and reactivation to storage and recycling. One of our major assets is our dense network of parking locations across Europe, including our base and line maintenance locations, as well as small regional airports. Aside from our standard offers, we also provide mobile services such as engine removals at all locations. With the integrated know-how of our CAMO and Design Engineering, we are capable of further optimizing the maintenance procedures ensuring lean and airworthiness compliant parking.

A good example of this integrated approach is our new parking facility at the Northern German regional airport of Nordholz. Under the leadership of our CAMO department, this new parking facility with highly competitive pricing was set up and initially used for four Lufthansa A320s. It was then further expanded to four aircraft that were previously operated by a commercial airline currently under insolvency.

Our solution for the lessor consisted of a temporary German registration, with our CAMO taking over the entire responsibility for the continuing airworthiness. Additionally, we implemented IO2 (Interface of Organizations) as a professional Interface Management that offers one single point of contact for all involved internal and external organizations. With our combined design and engineering skills, we optimized the parking and mooring procedures thus reducing costs, the risk of fuel contamination and ensuring safety even during gusts of high winds that are common in the north. Aside from flexibility and cost-effectiveness, easy access to aircraft, especially during corona times is a big plus. Our high number of various cost-efficient locations are situated all over Europe and can be further scaled to meet future demands.

Retirement of aircraft

 In addition to parking, we also offer integrated and mobile services, which guarantee that the aircraft does not have to be moved to a different location. In case of aircraft retirement, we have access to an extensive partner network of recycling agents and a professional team, who fulfill all the required maintenance work within the scrapping processes. With our component and pooling service, we are also able to buy components, thus offering a seamless service. Throughout the whole process our component services support aircraft layovers and eliminate the risk of a delay thanks to a guaranteed supply of needed material.

 Reactivation of aircraft

 When it comes to aircraft reactivation, we offer a whole host of services: “Maintwise” for example is a consulting service to optimize every maintenance concept. It enables airlines to efficiently synchronize maintenance and flight operations while improving key performance indicators like cost and flexibility. It also allows us to find the optimum maintenance program to bring our customer’s fleet back to work quickly and efficiently. 

 Use case: Support for a restarting airline

Most recently, we had the opportunity to design a maintenance concept for a customer in the restart phase. They approached us to discuss how to best optimize their maintenance concept as they were planning a restart. They were challenged by having a smaller fleet size and a greatly reduced network. Before the pandemic, their aircraft were primarily flying in a point-to-point network, and maintenance activities were carried out and distributed across numerous locations. Now, with the reduced size, it was no longer economical to distribute maintenance work across different stations. Our Maintwise team worked in close cooperation with them to create a new maintenance concept with a focus on cost savings and aggregating all work at one maintenance hub. The team then developed a customized bridging algorithm to identify the most suitable maintenance module for a restart. The team looked specifically into the current parking locations and requirements for a reactivation per aircraft, based on the airline’s restart plan. They then combined the next required maintenance module with the reactivation checks, creating synergies in working hours as well as ensuring that once the aircraft started flying, it would have as little ground time as possible for maintenance in the first few weeks. This optimization program is currently in the implementation phase and expects overall savings of approximately 80-100,000 Euro/aircraft/year, as well as having ensured a higher level of aircraft availability in the critical restart stage.

 This current crisis is hitting everybody in the aviation industry hard. We believe that flexibility and a step-by-step approach are crucial in this phase of uncertainty. We can assist and help you in finding your best solution to get through this difficult time.

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