Lufthansa Technik an investment success story - Fenech

Lufthansa Technik Malta signed an agreement with the leading Belgian airline, Brussels Airlines for the maintenance of their Airbus A330 fleet as well as a complete cabin renovation of the planes as from February 2012.

Details of the agreement were given by Vice-President of Brussels Airlines Geert Sciot and Lufthansa Malta chief executive officer Stephan Drews during Finance Minister Tonio Fenech’s visit to the Lufthansa hangar.

“This company is an investment success story for our country which contributes to the Maltese economy which continued to grow even during international difficulties and Malta has the fifth lowest rate of unemployment (6.6%) in the European Union which has a total average close to 10%,” Fenech said.

Fenech praised the company for their success which was expected to restore recognition for the quality and dedication of the company’s 600 Maltese workers, with an average of age of 28.

“With the government’s investment of €60 million in the Lufthansa Technik hangar and €18 million in equipment, machinery and tools, the company was able to keep up to 700,000 hours of productive work in its hangar,” Fenech said.

Speaking on employment as one of the government’s main priorities, Fenech said that during the first nine months of 2011, the Employment and Training Corporation had 10,756 vacancy adverts. The number of reported redundancies was 1,254. The number of vacancies advertised during the same period in 2010 was recorded at 7,323, showing an increase in employment position available for the Maltese.

Apart from the maintenance of and repair of the Lufthansa aircraft itself, Lufthansa Technik Malta also has agreements with a number of other clients which include Etihad, Aegean Airlines, BMI, Germanwings, Clickair, Air One, STC Russiya, SAS and Afriqiyah.