CAMO:  Maintain your asset smartly

Once an airline is no longer responsible for an aircraft, our CAMO team takes over legal responsibility for its airworthiness. The owner of the aircraft – a bank or a leasing company – is faced with different scenarios. For example, an aircraft is going to be be imported into or exported from the EASA region, or be transferred from country A to country B. Typical scenarios include:

• A lessor has found a new lessee in a country with differing airworthiness regulations
• A bank wants to bring an aircraft to a teardown shop to recover its usable parts
• A lessor needs to repossess an aircraft at a remote station and fly it to a parking or maintenance facility
• An aircraft owner wants to recover an aircraft after it suffered severe structural damage

The first step: we assign a temporary German tail sign to the aircraft – available at short notice and at unbeatable low costs. Then, an absolutely unique performance follows: we obtain a permit to fly and ferry the aircraft to any country a customer wishes. Upon request, we organize the flight plan, crew, fuel and all others items, and obtain the necessary authority approvals.

The CAMO team will not only look after the documentation – you can have the aircraft rolling onto your apron, ready for immediate operation. An airworthiness review, performed by specialized CAMO staff, ensures that the aircraft is in an airworthy condition and eligible for issuance of a Certificate of Airworthiness or Certificate of Airworthiness for Export. 

To own and operate a VIP aircraft means the ultimate in mobility; owners want to get the best from their assets. Yet, a number of legal requirements have to be fulfilled to ensure the safety of the aircraft and to meet authorities' airworthiness regulations. Our CAMO Services for VIP aircraft support owners of private aircraft and governmental organizations in meeting these requirements – and at the same time maximize the availability of their aircraft. 

We are qualified to take on full accountability for the airworthiness of VIP and special mission aircraft – or just a part of it should the aircraft owner hold its own CAMO approval already.

Our services for a worry-free operation include:

•     Maintenance program and AD/SB assessment
•     Maintenance planning and control
•     Weight & balance, documentation management
•     Condition monitoring and reliability reporting

We also offer engineering consulting such as aircraft assessment or aircraft storage and a number of additional services to maintain the airworthiness at the highest level.

Our customers usually do not ask for "CAMO" but for a solution for their problem. Their problem is no problem for us – here are three examples: 

Case 1: Regional challenge

An aircraft operated by a Japanese low-cost airline had reached the end of its leasing period. The plane had to be transferred to the EASA region. In Japan, numerous local regulations apply which constitute a challenge for any transition. For example, the aircraft documentation is available only in Japanese, constituting a language barrier. Furthermore, a mandatory rule is that the serial number of the aircraft must be engraved into a fuselage frame near the cargo compartment door. Under EASA regulations, this rates as a damage to the airframe. While an Export Certificate of Airworthiness (C of A) can only be applied for if the aircraft is located in Japan and conforms to local regulations, the leasing contract required the aircraft to be EASA-compliant.

We proposed assigning the aircraft a temporary German tail sign. After approval we were able to coordinate the subsequent transition process with the lessor and we assumed complete responsibility for the airplane's airworthiness as CAMO. A simple repair was developed, approved and performed on the damaged frame, made possible by our additional Part 21J repair capability. After the necessary paperwork was compiled and the aircraft was flown into European airspace by us, it was adapted to EASA airworthiness regulations. An import into EU was performed based on an Airworthiness Review by Lufthansa Technik CAMO staff and the aircraft has finally been registered under EU member-state jurisdiction. 

Case 2: Freighter conversion - flight test support included

A company specializing in freighter conversions launched the modification of a new aircraft type to expand its portfolio. Their challenge was to find aircraft suitable for conversion on the market and ferry them to their maintenance facilities, and eventually deliver an EASA-registered aircraft to the next operator. Our CAMO team was ready to step up. We inspected suitable aircraft for conversion and checked the records in detail up to technical acceptance. Spare engines and landing gear assemblies, fitting the aircraft in question, were evaluated. The candidate aircraft received a temporary German register and Lufthansa Technik assumed CAMO responsibility. We developed a maintenance program, compiled the D-check maintenance package, monitored the conversion and the heavy maintenance event.

After the conversion, we supported the test flight phase by integrating numerous flight tests into a coordinated test flight program and accompanying the actual test flights, effectively reducing a four-week campaign to three flights total.

The airworthiness review, performed by our CAMO staff, successfully concluded the project and an EASA Certificate of Airworthiness (C of A) was issued, thus delivering a perfectly prepared aircraft to our customer.

Case 3: CAMO the VIP way – worry-free flying all year round

A customer with a narrowody and a widebody VIP aircraft commissioned us to perform the CAMO tasks (Part M) for his jets. Even though the aircraft are registered in the Caribbean, this is not a problem for us because we have an approval from the authorities.

Our VIP CAMO specialists are drawing up and revising the maintenance program for the aircraft, which are in the air approximately 700 hours a year. We ensure the necessary approvals from the authorities and set up the appropriate deadline monitoring as part of our meticulous planning process. In the event of heavy maintenance layovers, we are working closely with our customer to put together the highly customized work package – be it routine work, modifications, component changes or a new paint job – and commission the desired maintenance operation. We monitor and document the work and release the commissioned work – if necessary after a test flight defined by CAMO. Last not least, we also ensure that future airspace equipment requirements are implemented on time. CAMO thus eliminates any concerns of the aircraft owner about the airworthiness of his aircraft – so he can fly worry-free all year round.