Lufthansa Technic has released its financial report for 2021 in which it has shown it has begun to shake off the effects of the pandemic-related aviation crisis. Through a combination of extensive restructuring and further development of its product portfolio the company was able to increase revenue by 7% to €4.003 billion (previous year: €3.747 billion) and again generated a clearly positive adjusted EBIT of €210 million (previous year: €-383 million).
The company also attributes much of the successful turnaround to its RISE programme which was instigated in 2020 to streamline Lufthansa Technic to five principal business units instead of the existing eight, together with the sale or closure of maintenance and overhaul sites. Much of the profitability can also be put down to the extensive government aid provided, for example the short-time working allowance in Germany. However, with an uptick in travel demand and a recovery in global air traffic, the maintenance sector of the business saw a strong increase in demand.
The Aircraft Component Services business which depends heavily on the number of hours flown, saw significantly better capacity utilisation in its workshops. On the obverse side of the coin, there was only modest recovery in the engine business, primarily due to airlines taking advantage of ‘green time’ service life of parked engines in 2021 so they can avoid overhauls. Over the course of 2021, the sales organisation won 42 new customers and signed over 620 contracts with a total volume of €4.7 billion. Among the new customers were numerous start-up airlines, which Lufthansa Technik supports with extensive expertise in setting up their technical operations. At the end of the 2021 fiscal year, the company had exclusive contracts governing over 4,200 aircraft operated by more than 800 customers. (£1.00 = 1.19 at time of publication).