Rejuvenating the flagship of the Lufthansa fleet

Lufthansa’s first Airbus A380, the “Frankfurt am Main” with tailsign D-AIMA, recently completed a major overhaul involving 90,000 working hours and a two-month layover. Encompassing two passenger decks and a total of 509 seats in four classes, D-AIMA underwent its Intermediate Layover or “IL-check” at Lufthansa Technik Philippines. The aircraft had previously recorded a total of 2,671 flights in 23,595 flight hours.

“We have been preparing for this layover since the 2nd quarter of 2015,” says Rainer Janke, Vice President for Marketing and Sales of Lufthansa Technik Philippines. “We were able to accumulate a wealth of experience in recent years with the A380 type, building up our heavy maintenance capability and performing major modifications.”

The A380’s IL-check poses a particular challenge for any MRO, in terms of coordinating the different trade disciplines. Some 180 employees in total were deployed on the D-AIMA. In addition to the aircraft structure, the entire cabin was also completely overhauled in the specialist local workshops and now looks “as new” for passengers.

A month after D-AIMA arrived, a second Lufthansa A380 with tailsign D-AIMB flew to Manila for the same type of check. For a time, the two A380s underwent their heavy checks in parallel. D-AIMB is expected to be released in the next weeks.

Lufthansa Technik Philippines is the center of excellence for Lufthansa Technik AG for overhauls of the Airbus A320, A330, A340, and A380 types. An additional aircraft type is now being added with the Boeing 777.