Health Checks at Luxair Technics

How to reveal additional potentials for increase efficiency and aircraft availability.

Lumics project story

Health checks reveal additional potentials for Luxair Technics

By applying established and customized Aviation MRO health checks at Luxair Technik additional potentials to increase efficiency and aircraft availability and to reduce costs were identified. Furthermore, existing performance management systems as well as the corporate culture of the organization were analyzed.

Luxair Technics aims to proactively increase LuxairGroup`s competitiveness

In 2018, Luxair Luxembourg Airlines transported approximately 2.13 million passengers, reflecting roughly a 10% increase compared to the previous year. The airline recently brought two additional B737 aircrafts into service to support future growth. By now, the fleet consists of four B737-800s, four B737-700s and eleven Bombardier Q400s1. However, the airline is facing headwinds due to additional competition, e.g. by easyJet and Ryanair. Given these circumstances, Luxair Technics, being a division of Luxair Luxembourg Airlines, aimed at proactively increasing aircraft availability and reducing MRO costs to contribute to the group`s competitiveness. To identify areas for improvement Lumics was asked for external support.

A health check was conducted to ensure a holistic overview

The health check, which was jointly conducted, consisted of various analyses to identify improvement areas concerning operational efficiency e.g. at line maintenance and logistics, aircraft availability, MRO costs, the current performance management system as well as the skills and mindset of employees. To identify thoughts and feelings from all Luxair Technics employees, a digitalized staff survey was set-up. Thanks to high participation of the employees reliable statements could be made, highlighting additional potentials for improving.

Health check results showed potential for increasing aircraft availability and reducing MRO costs significantly

At the end of the analysis measures were derived to increase efficiency and aircraft availability as well as to reduce MRO costs. Afterwards, potentials per measure were estimated and prioritized. In addition, ideas were generated on how to further increase employee satisfaction and how to implement an aligned and cascaded performance management system in the organization. Based on these findings, the way forward was planned. Lumics also supported Luxair Technics during the next phase to create concepts or, where applicable, to support with the implementation of defined measures.
The proactive approach to further improve things to the better proved to be right. Thanks to the open feedback and reflection of my staff and the methodological support of Lumics we could gather additional insights highlighting room for improvement. The aligned way forward gives me confidence to tackle our challenges ahead to further increase our competitiveness.
Mr. Christoph Blaha
VP Luxair Technics
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About the authors:
Detlev Jeske
Detlev Jeske
Managing Director
Detlev has been appointed Managing Director of Lumics in Hamburg. For over 20 years he worked in different functions at Lufthansa Technik such as strategic purchasing, sales, production and as CEO (including role as Accountable Manager) in Malaysia and China.
Christian Schüberl
Christian Schüberl
Project Manager Aviation MRO
Christian is a project manager working for Lumics and is also based in the Hamburg office. He focuses primarily on international transformation projects in the aviation MRO industry. Before joining Lumics he gained working, leadership, and consulting experience in the airline industry.
Dr. Steffen Elstner
Dr. Steffen Elstner
Senior Consultant Aviation MRO
Steffen, based in the Hamburg office, is working as a senior consultant for Lumics. He worked almost 3 years as a Key Account Manager learning best practices of Lufthansa Technik and airline operators. During his PhD studies he gained consulting experiences in different industrial and research projects within the aircraft industry.