Warrenton, OR — Aircraft tug manufacturer LEKTRO announced it recently received the Southwest Airlines Vendor of the Year and Ground Support Worldwide Magazine’s Product Leader of the Year Award.

Southwest Airlines Vendor of the Year:

LEKTRO provides Southwest Airlines their aircraft pushback tractors, also known simply as “tugs”. LEKTRO only sells one model of tug to the airline, their AP8950SDB-AL-200 which first debuted in 2014. Despite only recently becoming a vendor, LEKTRO’s after sales support and product quality was a driving factor for honoring the Oregon based company as their Vendor of the Year. “To be a relatively new vendor and receive this high of an award is not only a huge honor, but an affirmation to our business strategy and customer focused culture,” said LEKTRO spokesman Henry Balensifer.

Ground Support Worldwide Magazine Product Leader of the Year:

Ground Support Worldwide Magazine is the world’s leading ground support industry publication. After a worldwide review of new products and the companies that brought them to market, the magazine decided that LEKTRO’s newest tug, the AP8950SDB-AL-250 was singularly noteworthy. The tug was introduced in 2016 by LEKTRO at the request of major airline customers for a tug capable of handling both regional aircraft and all narrow body airliners in domestic operation. Through an aggressive certification program and advanced engineering, the tug was certified to handle the Boeing 757, 737, 717, and MD-80-95; Airbus A318-321, Bombardier Q400 and CRJ series; as well as the Embraer ERJ and E-Series of aircraft. No other aircraft tug in its class is certified to safely handle that many aircraft. The most remarkable part the magazine noted, was at how fast LEKTRO was able to redesign, test, certify and put the tug into production, which took about a year.

22.07.2017 H.Belensifer

The tug, a model AP8950SDB-AL-250, is the Oregon based company’s largest pushback offering, capable of handling aircraft up to 280,000 pounds such as the Boeing 757. It is an upgraded version of LEKTRO’s popular AP8950SDB-AL-200, which was introduced in 2014 and designed to handle aircraft up to 210,000 pounds like the Airbus A321 and Boeing 737.

 “Our AP8950SDB-AL-250 is certified to handle virtually any narrow-body down thru Regional aircraft an airline may fly, it is by far, the most versatile towbarless tug available on the market today,” noted LEKTRO President Eric Paulson.

Having invented the first towbarless aircraft tug in 1967, LEKTRO has long been an industry leader. Currently their vehicles are in use in 93 countries across the globe. As a testament to their quality of construction and reliability, their second tug ever manufactured is still in operation (the first unit was recently taken out of service so could be displayed in LEKTRO's Warrenton museum).

11.04.2017