Sebastian Schumacher, Station Manager at Frankfurt, has been into aviation since he was a little boy. How did he end up in Direct Maintenance and what are the main challenges in his work now? Get to know Sebastian better as he answered these and a few other questions for our Meet The Team feature!
What was your path that led to aviation? How did you end up working at Direct Maintenance?
Since I was a little boy back in the 90s, while watching the B747, Galaxys and Airbuses landing in FRA, I was sure to work in the aviation industry. After more than 20 years with Lufthansa Technik, becoming a CAT B1 engineer, Shift Supervisor in the Line Maintenance Customer Department, Technical Expert on the Lufthansa MCC and working on several Airbus A380 and A350 projects, I decided to go back to the Line Maintenance Business at my „private homebase“ FRA.
What did you know about Direct Maintenance before you joined the company?
The brand „Direct Maintenance“ is well known in the Line Maintenance business. Happy customers and a very informative public relation media style from Magnetic Group and Direct Maintenance were well known. Also, running several stations in Europe and Africa, and handling a lot of well-known customers.
What was your impression of the company when you joined?
Coming from a very big MRO, I was looking forward to joining a smaller company just focusing on the Line Maintenance business only. Always receiving answers to my questions, and getting feedback in a very short time, which I really like. From the management to Finance, QA, HR, Sales, Station managers and engineers, of course, everybody within the company is very helpful. I feel the spirit of the company to have a solution to a problem without talking about it for too long.
What are the main challenges in your line of work, and how you’re handling them?
Becoming a station manager and opening a new station within just a few weeks was a big challenge. Keep the station running with staff planning, and relief planning to keep the quality standards of Direct Maintenance and the daily business with our customers is next. But in the end, it´s all about teamwork. The mindset „to think out of the box“ is very important for all of us.
What would be the main achievement for you in your line of work?
To keep the station FRA running smoothly with the nice colleagues, I already have and getting more customers would be the main achievement for me right now.
Besides work, what are your hobbies and interests?
Besides aviation, my hobbies and interests are football, playing guitar and scale modeling.
What is your go-to destination to travel to?
As a relief engineer and flight spanner, I saw the world. Sometimes my family was traveling with me. Besides these duty and holiday travels, I prefer to enjoy my days off on our small german island named Langeoog.