Lufthansa Technik has secured a preliminary agreement with Airbus to outfit vvip cabins for the double-deck A380. The company presented its design concepts and floor plans at this year’s EBACE exhibition, displaying a 1:20 scale model of the aircraft showing the upper deck in vvip configuration, which attracted a great deal of interest from show attendees.

“We relish the challenge of outfitting a private jet version of the world’s largest airliner, whose tremendous space and volume offer almost limitless possibilities,” said senior vp of sales and marketing Walter Heerdt.

To accommodate the world’s biggest airliner, LHT will adjust its hangar capacities at its Hamburg completions centre. From 2007, the company will operate a hangar in Frankfurt with capacity for up to four A380s for line maintenance.

The company is hopeful that it will sign a contract before the end of next year, bringing the possibility of seeing a vvip A380 take to the air within five years.

Airbus states that the aircraft will be the ‘ultimate business

aircraft’, with the most spacious interior available, and expects that it will be outfitted in both vvip and government head of state configurations.

Although LHT is the first company to sign a preliminary agreement for the vvip A380 project, Airbus notes that it remains open to working with other cabin outfitters, and the decision ultimately rests with the customer.

Having competed so rigorously against Airbus’ ACJ with the BBJ models, Boeing Business Jets president Steven Hill does not think that the A380 will compete directly with any of Boeing’s products.

“I think it will fit into a fairly niche market,” he commented, adding that it will most likely appeal to a small market of very high

net worth individuals in the

Middle East.

Hill states that, unlike Airbus, all of the Boeing aircraft in production are available ‘green’ for vip configuration by numerous completion centres.