With eight bays largest base maintenance facility in Eastern Europe
The leading provider of aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul services, Lufthansa Technik, is expanding its capacity with a new hangar, office and multifunctional building at Sofia Airport becoming the largest base maintenance facility in Eastern Europe. Bulgarian subsidiary Lufthansa Technik Sofia will be also the largest base maintenance site of Lufthansa Technik in Europe.
The total investment in the project amounts to approximately 35 million EUR invested together with the joint venture partner Bulgarian Airways Group. The funds were used for the construction of the new 6-level multifunctional building, combining hangar, offices and workshop areas. The new expansion will lead to increase in production lines and further growth of the central service departments which are serving from Sofia the worldwide Lufthansa Technik network of base maintenance facilities. That means 60 per cent capacity increase or 1 Million man-hours in total per year, as well as a 30 per cent increase in the number of employees in Sofia to 1,300 people.
"Lufthansa Technik Sofia results during the last nine years proved that the company has significantly contributed to the development of the Bulgarian aviation industry and we succeeded to establish a fully efficient portfolio of services for the maintenance of aircraft, becoming a leader on the European maintenance, repair and overhaul market. We can be proud of what our specialists in Bulgaria have achieved and we see a lot of potential in the future to continue our growth while providing high quality services and solutions to our customers," said Daniel Hoffmann, Chief Executive Officer of Lufthansa Technik Sofia.
"Bulgarian Airways Group as a partner of Lufthansa Technik has supported and participated in realization of the dream named Lufthansa Technik at Sofia airport from the very beginning. As a result of our last nine years successful cooperation, every passenger upon landing at the airport is impressed by the new built four multifunctional hangars for heavy maintenance of narrow-body aircraft. The entire investment we made since 2007 till today is for more than 100 million euro in assets, tools and equipment, and trained personnel in our joint venture. The project has been realized on 64,000 square meters land and we are proud to be the ones who made this huge step towards developing Bulgarian aviation industry," said Plamen Atanasov, Chief Executive Officer of Bulgarian Airways Group EAD.
The modern facility of Lufthansa Technik Sofia will be able to accommodate and service eight narrowbody A/C for base maintenance simultaneously and one aircraft in a nose-in position for services such as cabin modifications. The service spectrum reaches from line maintenance to IL-/D-Checks and includes a full range of additional services such as aircraft painting, special interior works and AOG support. Two of the bays have full paint capability. The company is residing in a 64,000 square meter area at Sofia airport thus being able to perform all base maintenance related work in-house or in close cooperation with other facilities in the Lufthansa Technik Group. State of-the-art technology enables the company to meet highest environmental standards.
Lufthansa Technik Sofia is one of the largest corporate investors and employers in Bulgarian aviation industry. The company specializes in the overhaul and maintenance of Airbus A320 family and soon to include A320 NEO as well as the Boeing 737 (Classic and NG) aircraft series. Lufthansa Technik Sofia`s specialists carry out also line maintenance of various types of aircraft, including the Airbus A320, Boeing 737 and Embraer E-Series.