Lufthansa Technik Budapest organized a special Customer Event on the Danube. On 20th August Hungarians celebrate the anniversary of the foundation of their state in the year 1000. On this national holiday our Hungarian collegues do not work, offices, shops  and hangars are closed. But this occasion was different. It turned out to be a winning idea to invite Customers on this Friday, for a Conference and Special Customer Event to Budapest. What was originally planned around the Red Bull Air Race, needed a major adjustment after the race cancellation – a blessing in disguise. The conference was put on board of a beautiful, old, originally steam powered boat named ”Attila”. Distinguished speakers from Deutsche Lufthansa and Lufthansa Technical Training delivered absolute perfect and interesting presentations for the audience.
Dr. Andreas Heizner, Senior Vice President Aircraft Base Maintenance, opened the Conference on the boat with his keynote address.
Mrs. Heike Roettgering presented ”Current trends in EASA regulatory enviroment”, Mr. Manfred Mohr gained the maximum attention of the audience, sharing his experience on A 380’s entry into service and also presented the concept of Single European Sky, Mr. Klaus Schmidt-Klyk shared his views about Continuation Training for Human Factors.
In the meantime the unique conference venue, the boat, reached such ”jewellery boxes” of the river, like the Danube Bend and the medieval city of Visegrad.
On this day, everything was special for customer airlines’ representatives from Spain, Ukraine, Austria, U.K., Hungary and Germany. The Renaissance Restaurant reminded the participants of the golden age of Visegrad which came at the end of the 15th Century under the reign of King Matthias, then the guests toured the former Royal Palace and other buildings which were erected in the reign of Charles Robert, Louis the Great and King Sigismund.
The cruising was continued at evening time as well when Budapest’s waterfront turned into a stage of celebration. The dark sky of the Hungarian capital was painted with different colours. Our guests enjoyed the year’s biggest firework display which was viewed by one million amazed people standing by the banks of the Danube.
Elmar Lutter, Chief Executive Officer noted  that ”This conference was organized for the first time by LTB, but this is a milestone in our company`s  life. It was so unique that we are not sure whether to make it an annual tradition...”. The positive feedbacks received from the customers are justifying, that it will be really difficult to outshine the atmosphere and spirit of this event in 2011. 
P.C.