Lufthansa unit raises R&D spend to shore up market share, margins

Frankfurt

DEUTSCHE Lufthansa AG's plane-servicing business, the German airline's most profitable unit, is more than quadru-pling research and development (R&D) spending to shore up its dwindling market share and fading margins.

The Lufthansa Technik maintenance, repair and overhaul division is in the middle of a 200 million euro (S$298.2 million), five-year R&D programme that's come up with products such as sharkskin-like fuselage patches that improve aerodynamics and lower fuel costs, and using three-dimensional printing to make cheaper tools. Spending in the next budget period will be "clearly above" current figures, said Helge Sachs, head of the 100-employee R&D team.