Emirates has contracted Lufthansa Technik to provide MRO services for its Airbus A380s.

One agreement will see Lufthansa Technik overhaul main landing gears of Emirates’ double-deck flagships.

In a second agreement, the MRO company will provide the airline with “highly flexible extra capacity” for A380 base maintenance such as C-checks. This agreement marks the first outsourcing of heavy checks from Emirates’ in-house A380 MRO capacities to an external provider.

The long-term landing gear services contract will be fulfilled by Lufthansa Technik Landing Gear Services. Over the next 13 years, the specialised workshop in the United Kingdom will overhaul main landing gear shipsets for some of Emirates’ A380s and in the process restore them to “as-good-as-new” condition before delivering them back to the customer’s MRO facilities for re-installation. The first of these landing gear overhauls is scheduled to begin in August.

The additional capacity for A380 base maintenance services will be provided by Lufthansa Technik Philippines (LTP) in Manila. The first Emirates A380 arrived at LTP at the end of January. LTP recently invested a “medium seven-digit US dollar” figure into additional A380 overhaul capacities.

These are planned to go online in the second half of 2023 and will initially host additional checks for Emirates.

“With most airlines now having left the Covid crisis behind and air travel demand skyrocketing, passenger capacity is needed more than ever, and this positively affects MRO demand for the A380. The happier we are to not only bring our existing and well-proven capabilities for this aircraft type to market, but also to invest in building up additional capabilities such as the third A380 overhaul line in Manila,” said Lufthansa Technik’s vice president corporate sales Europe, Middle East and Africa Kai-Stefan Roepke. “Having won the trust of Emirates, both the type’s largest operator and themselves a renowned authority in the field of A380 MRO, makes us extra proud.”