Austrian Airlines is considering a potential transfer of its maintenance operations to the MRO arm of parent Lufthansa.

The Vienna-based subsidiary is evaluating a partial or full integration of Austrian Technik into Lufthansa Technik as well as alternative co-operation arrangements between the two engineering units, said Lufthansa chief executive Christoph Franz during a results briefing today.

Austrian’s management is conducting the review as a potential future project under the group’s Score cost-cutting programme, says Franz.

Unlike LHT, which acts as a standalone MRO provider wholly owned by Lufthansa, Austrian Technik is a mere business unit rather than a legal entity in its own right.

Austrian Technik is already co-operating with LHT. The Vienna component shop is repairing components on LHT’s behalf, while the German MRO group is servicing Austrian engines.

A year ago, LHT chief financial officer Peter Jansen told Flightglobal that the maintenance specialist was negotiating a comprehensive work package with Austrian as part of planned greater co-operation between the two engineering units.

Source: Cirium Dashboard