Taiwan-based carrier China Airlines and Lufthansa Technik strengthen their cooperation

China Airlines (CAL) and Lufthansa Technik have once again expanded their close cooperation in the field of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), this time with a particularly long-term focus. At the MRO Asia-Pacific trade fair in Singapore, the two companies today signed a new contract that will secure the parts supply for China Airlines’ existing Boeing 777 and future Boeing 787 fleets over no less than the next two decades. With its comprehensive Total Component Support (TCS) for the 787, Lufthansa Technik will also become an important partner for the airline in its fleet expansion.

The new contract complements an existing TCS agreement for China Airlines’ Airbus A330 and A350 fleets. It adds a total of ten Boeing 777-300ER and ten 777F aircraft, as well as 18 787-9 and six 787-10 joining the fleet in the near future. Through the TCS, the airline enjoys direct access to Lufthansa Technik’s global spare parts pool, which will enable China Airlines to significantly increase the availability of aircraft components and to leverage considerable cost advantages for the mentioned fleets. Thereby, the agreement not only covers classic component MRO services, but also an AOG (Aircraft On Ground) support and the setup of a dedicated home base parts pool located directly at China Airlines’ hub in Taipei.

The TCS for the 777 fleet already commenced in August. With the subsequent buildup of its 787 fleet, the airline is not only welcoming a new aircraft type into its operations, it is also pursuing a strategic fleet expansion. Lufthansa Technik aims to support this expansion in the best possible way by leveraging the company’s extensive expertise with this modern aircraft type for a seamless entry-into-service. Currently, the MRO provider supports around 200 Dreamliners worldwide under TCS contracts.

“Lufthansa Technik has been a reliable partner in the past decades, hence we are delighted to write this next chapter in our joint success story,” stated China Airlines. “Based of the very good experience we had with the company’s component support for our Airbus A330s and A350s, we are more than happy to extend this cooperation onto our entire long-haul fleet now. Lufthansa Technik’s expertise with the 787 will moreover help us ensure a smooth entry-into-service of this new type.”

“In the aircraft components business, signing long-term agreements is not uncommon, but agreeing on a duration of 20 years still resembles something very special, and we regard this as an outstanding vote of confidence in our services,” said Dennis Kohr, Senior Vice President Corporate Sales Asia Pacific at Lufthansa Technik. “We are thus immensely grateful to China Airlines for having entrusted us with the important component support for their entire long-haul fleet, and we are looking forward to justifying this trust with best-in-class component services well into the 2040s.”

The successful business relationship between China Airlines and Lufthansa Technik has lasted for more than 20 years, during which both partners have already collaborated on a broad spectrum of services. Recently, the scope of work has ranged from the above-mentioned component support for numerous long-haul aircraft types to various Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) services for the entire Airbus A350 fleet and Aircraft Transition Services (ATS) for the airline’s Airbus A330 and Boeing 737 fleets.