Lufthansa Technik vice-president sales, VIP & special aircraft services Fabian Nagel believes the company is seeing the benefit of research investment that took place during the pandemic as new products hit the business aviation market.
“VIP aviation is a lot of the time the incubator for innovation,” he said, speaking during the EBACE show in Geneva. “The nice thing for VIP aviation is you can develop a lot of the latest gadget technology. You can develop stuff in this market and later on, it can go to commercial customers.”
Lufthansa Technik provides cabin management and entertainment systems to the VIP and business jet market, alongside cabin refurbishment and design services.
Nagel points to the additional work Lufthansa Technik was able to do during the pandemic period on research investment in updating its product range.
“We upgraded in-flight entertainment connectivity, we developed new interface and touch displays in the cabin,” he says, with other innovations nearing deployment.
“Some products take two years to develop and certify and some of those products are just coming now to the market,” he says.
One example includes Lufthansa Technik’s Omni-Fi sound system, a near-invisible speaker designed to fit into seamlessly into a cabin wall or ceiling. ”It is a little bit like cinema surround sound, which helps get the noise down for the cabin,” says Nagel.
The VIP business represents only around 5% of Lufthansa Technik’s overall revenues, which have been boosted by the wider strong demand for MRO services.
Nagel says, in addition to being a springboard for innovation within the company, the VIP segment has been a strong performer both during and since the pandemic.
He also points to the wider strength of Lufthansa Technik’s performance within Lufthansa Group as a whole, both financially and strategically.
The firm posted a record operating profit of €635 million ($715 million) in 2024 as revenues passed the €7 billion mark for the first time last year.
That strong performance has continued this year, with it posting its highest ever first-quarter profit of €161 million for the three months ended 31 March 2025.
Last year, Lufthansa Technik said it planned to invest €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) in the next four years to support its Ambition 2030 strategic growth initiative after parent Lufthansa last November scrapped plans to divest a partial stake of the company.
“The airline saw having an in-house MRO is really something that helps keep the fleet flying,” Nagel says. “We are making a lot of investments – a new facility in Portugal, and we are starting an engine shop in Calgary with WestJet.”
Nagel says. A new 54,000sq m plant in Santa Maria da Feira, near Porto, marks the first time it has built its own facility in Portugal and is due for completion by the end of 2027.
In Canada, Lufthansa Technik is building a new engine maintenance facility in Calgary where it will service CFM International Leap-1B turbofans and has signed a long-term maintenance deal with local carrier WestJet.
