Lufthansa Technik will be showing off its integrated system solutions at the upcoming Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany.

The event, which will be held from April 14 to 16 at Hamburg Messe, has as many as 530 exhibiting companies from 30 countries and is expected to attract over 800 airline buyers and close to 14,000 visitors.

Under the theme of ‘Travel experience instead of mere transportation’, Lufthansa Technik will presenting its one-stop service for cabin products. 

For in-flight entertainment, lighting concepts, medical care or seating configurations, with its unique capabilities as an innovative development, production and maintenance organization gained from six decades of experience in day-to-day operations, the Hamburg-based company has set itself the goal of becoming the world's top address for new cabin innovations.

During the past year, Lufthansa Technik bundled all its activities related to the development and production of cabin products in its Original Equipment Innovation (OEI) division, in order to further boost its manufacturing prowess. 

All products offered by Lufthansa Technik as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) will be developed, planned, manufactured and sold by this new division headed by Andrew Muirhead.

As many as 130 interdisciplinary experts from all over the world work in the unit, combining creativity and hands-on engineering. 

Depending on their projects, they are supported not only by the extensive capabilities of the in-house engineering unit and the VIP and Base Maintenance interior workshops but also by highly specialised laboratories and interdivisional innovation teams, making Lufthansa Technik able to network skills and flexibly allocate capacity as needed in a way that is unique in the industry, it says. 

Just recently, the company's funding for research and innovation was quadrupled in a project initially slated to run until 2018. Since April, innovation has been under the direct supervision of Lufthansa Technik’s new Chairman Dr Johannes Bussmann.

"We are combining our innovative power with our expertise and capabilities as a production and maintenance operation to produce for our customers exactly the products they need in order to give their passengers the ideal travel experience,” says Muirhead in describing his expectations of his team and of himself.

"For an airline, the aircraft cabin is one of the most significant factors in customer perception and differentiation. Passengers want to enjoy the benefits of new products and experiences more and more often. That offers us a significant opportunity, because due to our MRO and airline experience, we understand the possibilities for implementing and integrating modern systems in cabins and aircraft better than just about anybody else, and we can turn ideas into reality faster than others do. All the expertise in airline requirements, VIP cabin interiors, flight operations, maintenance and much more from throughout Lufthansa Technik comes together in our division.”

Among other things, Muirhead and his team will be presenting: Chair, a new concept in seating; a solution for integrating tablets and similar devices in aircraft seats; and the premiere of its next-generation Patient Transport Unit (PTU).

The Lufthansa Technik Group, with more than 30 subsidiaries and about 26,000 employees worldwide, is one of the leading providers of services for the aviation industry. 

The group's portfolio encompasses the entire spectrum of services in the areas of maintenance, repair, overhaul, modification and conversion, engines and components.

Lufthansa Technik will be at Hall B6, booth 6B80 at the Aircraft Interiors Expo.