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Best codeshare connections with Lufthansa Systems
SchedConnect is the industry’s most efficient codeshare management solution
Until several years ago, passengers buying a ticket from a specific airline were confined to the route network of that particular carrier. Or, if they wanted to fly to a certain destination, they had a quite limited choice of carriers serving that city. The concept of codesharing has changed this. Nowadays passengers can avail not only of individual carriers but of comprehensive networks of airlines and their partners. The customer simply transfers at a hub airport and can reach even the most exotic destinations. For the airlines, this system brings an important gain in revenue and passenger numbers. Customers going to certain destinations now stay within the own airline/partner network whereas before they were lost to the competition. Partner flights act as feeder or de-feeder services for important intercontinental trunk routes, which increases profitability of these long-haul flights. Other benefits include a higher visibility in the global distribution systems which increases booking levels. Codesharing, in short, creates a win-win situation for passengers and airlines.
Yet, codesharing increases complexity in the day-to-day operations of an airline because flight schedules need to be coordinated among partners. Schedules are usually published twice a year; however they change frequently. Newly-offered flights, ATC changes, different aircraft types and other occasions lead to daily adjustments in the timetable. In an airline partnership, marketing flight numbers are assigned to those connecting flights that directly feed or de-feed a long-haul flight operated by a partner airline. So even a re-scheduling by just five minutes can affect minimum connecting times. If a flight carrying a marketing flight number is moved to an earlier or later time, chances are that it may not qualify as a codeshare flight any more because the minimum connecting time from and to a feeder or de-feeder flight is no longer guaranteed. The change forces planners to provide a new connection to which the marketing flight number can be assigned. A complex task in the environment of a network ai line.
Lufthansa Systems realized this problem early and created SchedConnect, the world’s most powerful codeshare management and distribution system. Its high degree of automation brings the daily network management process to the next level. Based on the current flight plans of the partner airlines and other parameters, the integrated solution reschedules the marketing flight number to another appropriate connecting flight of the codeshare partner. In a large network airline, this can be around 1.5 million changes every month. The permanent synchronization of flight plan and marketing data in real-time is a distinctive advantage which means that flight plan changes can be transmitted to the reservation systems of travel agencies and passenger-related systems of codeshare partners immediately. In addition to that, the application’s Codeshare Connection Builder supports the simulation of new codeshare agreements and enables airlines to extend their route network gradually. The new platform concept, called the MultiCustomer philosophy, follows the principle of short distances: If two or more airlines use SchedConnect, conflicts in data exchange and codeshare handling are all but avoided. This is based on the real-time synchronisation of schedule information between the airlines, the usage of identical industry data and common algorithms. Costs for schedule data exchange between them are not incurred.
A professional schedule management system including codeshare management and schedule distribution facility is paramount for a successful airline partnership and therefore a membership requirement at the global alliances. Not surprisingly, a number of renowned airlines have already signed up for SchedConnect. They include Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Croatia Airlines and EgyptAir.
Lufthansa Systems’ EFOM increases quality of flight operations documentation
New technologies render the flood of paper from countless lists, documents and route charts obsolete. Pilots receive the required data electronically via electronic flight bag (EFB) solutions such as the Lido eFlightBag from Lufthansa Systems. However, operational data have to be thoroughly prepared beforehand in order to ensure that the stringent requirements with regard to information quality and processing speed are met. By using Lufthansa Systems’ EFOM (Electronic Flight Operating Manual) solution airlines can improve the quality of their flight operations documentation. Current documents are available more quickly and cost-effectively.
Lufthansa Systems has developed EFOM drawing on many years of experience with IT solutions for the creation of flight operations documentation. EFOM is an authoring and publishing system for the optimal preparation, management and provision of flight operation manuals. The system covers flight regulations and safety measures in the air and on the ground, flight operations approvals for aircraft, and user manuals for individual aircraft models. EFOM provides pilots with the most up-to-date data at all times.
Texts for the manuals are entered in predefined structures and then converted into consistent and clear layouts. EFOM then supports and controls the revision process, ensuring that documents are made available as required. The system generates both printed and electronic manuals from the central database, thereby eliminating manual formatting and redundant document maintenance work.
EFOM is one of the first solutions on the market which can handle legacy data - e.g. FCOM (Flight Crew Operations Manual), FCTM (Flight Crew Training Manual) or MMEL (Master Minimum Equipment List) - of established aircraft types of Boeing, Airbus and Bombardier as well as the new A380 XML data structures. The solution's technology has been adapted specifically to meet the requirements of the Airbus A380 so that all data can be displayed in Airbus-compliant format on the onboard information system (OIS) in the A380 cockpit. In addition to transparent updating and approval processes, the solution's benefits are evident in particular when manuals are used with an electronic flight bag.
Airlines opting for EFOM as their flight operations authoring and publishing system in combination with the Lido eFlightBag solution benefit from an integrated product that covers the entire process chain of flight operations documentation from preparation, publication to electronic display in the cockpit.
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