n June, 2019 the students of the MSc Program Engineering Management class 2018/20 had an incredible opportunity to visit the Technical Base of Austrian Airlines. During our visit we were able to take a look at the impressive docks of the airline, in workshops where component maintenances are made, and even an airplane engine from the 50’s that is now seating in a glass box available for visitors to appreciate.

We were given an extensive explanation throughout our tour by Mr. Johann Stromminger who was a Flying Station Engineer in his active career.  Our visit kicked off when we were introduced to an airplane engine from the early 50’s that was a creation of Rolls-Royce that remains to be an interesting piece of work for this day and age.

Coming to today and high edge technologies we were able to see interesting cockpit layouts and diagrams of different aircraft types with detailed explanations. Moving on from there we saw the Airline’s docks. During our stay we observed where maintenance was carried out with detailed explanations about the aircraft that were in the dock. By the way we also learned the docks have a water spray system in case of fire and emergencies that is able to spray up to 10,000 liters of water.

Our final destination in the afternoon was the large maintenance workshop area. We visited the part of the workshop, where maintenance of breaks and aircraft wheels among others  takes place.
The excursion turned out to be a great experience and an eye opener as to what happens behind the scenes of the airline business that conduct what seems to be a mundane task of transporting people to and from. Our team led by Professor Kopacek and the tour conducted by Mr. Johann Stromminger has shown us why Austrian Airlines remains to be one of the top 20 airlines in the world.

A report from our Engineering Management student Zewdi from Ethiopia.