Dr. Wigger, in September 2008 you started your function as Vice President of Austrian Technik. Could you give us please a short review about the last 10 months?
I entered Austrian Technik last year right at that time when the turbulent times due to the worldwide financial crisis began. Austrian Technik has been developed to a highly professional and quality orientated MRO during the past years focusing both the maintenance of customer aircraft and their own fleet. I found a very motivated staff which gave me a very warm welcome.
Despite the fact that we had to conduct several cost-cutting measures during the past months, we could still keep and develop our high level of service quality. In addition, many ideas and suggestions how to improve processes on order to have additional savings originate from our employees.
Austrian Technik entered a cooperation with Lufthansa Technik in 2007. What is your personal impression about the cooperation with Lufthansa Technik started in December 2007?
The cooperation with Lufthansa Technik developed very well in 2008 which was the ramp-up year for this comprehensive cooperation. Both Austrian Technik and Lufthansa Technik benefit from this cooperation.
Currently airlines and MRO provider are facing turbulent times. What is your opinion about the development of the MRO-market in the next 5 years and what are the biggest future opportunities for Austrian Technik?
The MRO market will be controlled by big global players such as Lufthansa Technik, SRT and others. We will also see falling prices due to growing competition from middle- and far-east MRO providers. As a result we need to concentrate on our strength of offering best quality and short groundtimes in well developed niches.
The cooperation with LHT gives us the chance to persist on the MRO Market and provides us a larger access to it as long as we have a competitive framework within Austrian Technik.
Why should an airline chose the Austrian Technik MRO-services?
There are 5 good reasons why an airline should choose our services: More than 50 years experience – part of an airline – flexibility – located in the heart of Europe – optimal customer satisfaction. So please let me explain.
First of all Austrian Technik has been providing maintenance services for the Austrian Airlines fleet for more than 50 years. So we have a lot of experience AND we know the organizational needs of an airline for a smooth airtraffic. Compared to other MROs we are small sized and we are more flexible in our doings and enables us to fulfill duties in shorter timeframes. The airlines can profit from our destination in Vienna as we are located in the heart of Europe and can be reached easily. Something special I experienced in our company is that our staff aim for happy clients and I know that all our customer are highly satisfied with our services. Maybe it is also the Austrian charme which gives our customer care the special note – which I also appreciated within the last 10 months …. |