Lufthansa Technik: Cabin modifications for commercial airlines now available from a single source

- Lufthansa Technik’s interior shops are upgrading
- Single team offers all-round capability to manufacture
modification components

From the cost-saving development, production and installation of over
1,000 new LED flashlight holders, to the conversion of 1,000 Economy
seats from analog to the latest digital technologies in record time
or the complete redesign of the present cabins using the existing
furnishings – the interior shops of Lufthansa Technik Base
Maintenance in Hamburg are a talking point these days.

The over 200-person strong team is relaunching its services at the
Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg. The base maintenance workshops,
which up to now primarily offered backbone support to Aircraft Base
Maintenance, will in future offer full-scale modification services
for commercial airlines directly from a single source. Headed up by
Arne Bruhn, the workshops are working in close collaboration with the
company’s Engineering department, the Original Equipment Innovation
division and Lufthansa Technik’s VIP workshops.

For example, instead of having to buy expensive new seats, thanks to
this in-house capacity, Lufthansa Technik’s Hamburg shops can provide
commercial airlines with low-cost, ultra-flexible, fast solutions
that involve modifying existing parts of the cabin. Thanks to the
separate wiring workshop, it is even possible to undertake complete
electrical and electronic upgrades of existing configurations within
next to no time. All electrical cabling can be fabricated complete.
Specialists in another discipline can adapt the cabin design to the
airline’s new look using foils or paintwork.

Discussing the new capability, Arne Bruhn, head of the interior shops
of Lufthansa Technik Base Maintenance, says: “Thanks to many years’
experience as an aircraft overhaul service provider, we have an
expertise in the modification of existing aircraft cabin that is
unique in the market. Against the background of ever faster
innovation cycles and growing passenger expectations, commercial
airlines are confronted with the task of finding cost-effective
solutions for the long-term development of their cabin product. In
this area we see ourselves as the ideal partner. Together with our
colleagues from Engineering, Innovation and VIP Completion we can
manufacture the components for a modified cabin within the shortest
time. We are just as successful in the development services we offer
for individual components as we are in manufacturing prototypes in
our workshops.”

For Lufthansa German Airlines the workshops recently designed and
manufactured over 1,000 new LED flashlight holders that can simply
click into place in the same holders that previously held more
traditional lamps, thus saving the airline enormous re-equipment
costs. At the moment the teams are building components in large
volumes for economy cabins that are to be upgraded from centrally
supplied entertainment systems to stand-alone computing power
directly in the seat. This modification entails extensive structural
work plus complete rewiring.

Arne Bruhn will be attending Aircraft Interiors Expo at 8 April,
where he can be found on the Lufthansa Technik stand in Hall 6, stand
6B60.