THE rumours that Germany is now a world leader in the air transportation industry can no longer be ignored. I travelled recently to Frankfurt and Hamburg in order to get a better understanding of the Lufthansa group and its activities through a number of tours inside the headquarters of the German company. The trip, organised by Klaus Fauci, the Regional Director of Lufthansa in the Middle East, and Magdi el-Sayyed, the Media Consultant of the company, showed just how big this company has become. What I witnessed went far beyond my expectations, Lufthansa has proved to be a leading force in the air transport industry all over the world. Regardless of what I saw, I know many people will remain sceptical until facts and figures back up these announcements …quot; after all facts don't lie. I want to show in the following paragraphs the effect this airline has on the civil aviation industry worldwide as well as how strong its leading role is within Star Alliance, which includes under its umbrella major airlines such as EgyptAir. Airlines Lufthansa owns a fleet that comprises about 549 aircrafts, operating 80,819 trips annually. It also has several subsidiaries: Austrian Airlines, and BMI, a UK airline, which are both owned solely by Lufthansa and Brussels Airlines, in which Lufthansa acquired a 45 per cent stake in July 2009. Lufthansa also has the option to acquire the remaining 55 per cent in 2011. Maintenance, repair, overhaul Comprising of around 700 companies, the personnel who operate all maintenance and repairing activities for their own fleet and engines, undergo repairing activities on about 2,000 aircraft annually and checks and examines around 1,700 daily. The company owns 31 branches all over the world, in addition to its partnership in about 60 stations. With revenues estimating around 5.5 billion euros, 65 per cent of which comes from companies and personnel and the rest from maintaining and repairing Lufthansa Airlines' aircraft, this is hardly an enterprise of next to no importance. Valter Hert, the company's Manager of Marketing, added that Lufthansa had contracts of about three billion euros for the maintenance and repair of aircraft. To meet that need, Lufthansa Systems offers extensive airline knowhow and technological competence of the highest order. It is equipped with a unique product portfolio of superior IT solutions designed to increase the efficiency and cost efficacy of customer operations. Lufthansa technical training Technical training in the company nets around 150 million euros a year through the training of 70,000 trainees in different fields of specialisation, 70 per cent of which comes from training employees of the company's subsidiaries. However, after renovations in the sector, revenues resulting from training the employees of other companies have reached about 65 per cent, while the remainder comes from training recruits of Lufthansa. For example, Lufthansa trains around 25,000 pilots and hosts about 150 aviation companies annually among, which are 3,000 Chinese pilots who have been trained in Germany. Germany's airports As for the German airports', renovation and modernisation, there is non-stop, not only to buildings but also to other airport measures and procedures. For example, the Passenger Counting Systems has been cancelled except for first class and Business Class. Instead, ordinary passengers finish their reservation check in through an Automatic Passenger Counter, which is becoming ever more fashionable in German airports. From Hamburg to Vienna After finishing my brief visit to Germany, heavy snows forced me to change my destination to the Austrian capital, Vienna. Immediately I noticed how small the airport was there, in comparison to other international terminals, but despite this limited space, I never noticed any crowds or difficulty in getting procedures regarding reservations, passenger movement or trafficking through gates. All this was incredibly impressive, but what surprised me the most on my trip, was a banner I found in Vienna's airport reading: “Toilet Opera”. It seems that now a person can enjoy going to the toilet by watching and listening to opera concerts!
