February 16, 2010
Integrated optimization of network and revenue management gives airlines a competitive edge
Lufthansa Systems today announced the release of its Integrated Commercial Platform (ICP), the latest step in its strategy to provide airlines with integrated platform solutions for optimizing their core processes. The new Integrated Commercial Platform covers all of an airline’s network and revenue management processes, ensuring a consistent, comprehensive overview of the information relevant to commercial planning. This provides airlines with a solid foundation of data for managing their business and contributes to a significant increase in profitability.
"The Integrated Commercial Platform gives our customers a competitive edge by enabling them to respond more quickly and flexibly in a complex and dynamic market environment,” said Wolfgang F. W. Gohde, CEO of Lufthansa Systems AG. “Now more than ever, economic success depends on this capability. Integrated IT platforms therefore are the future of the airline industry.”
The innovative product links all core network management processes, from market analysis, long- to medium-term network planning and schedule and codeshare management, to revenue management and pricing. The network planning and revenue management departments of an airline can directly access all of the data relevant to commercial planning via a portal. These data include fares, frequencies, average revenues and the market share of a route as well as current information on offers from competitors.
One of the most innovative elements of the platform is the Opportunity Finder. This solution uses sophisticated algorithms and an integrated database to identify opportunities for generating additional revenues. With the portal and the Opportunity Finder, the Integrated Commercial Platform creates synergistic effects and offers greater benefits than standalone solutions.
Now that airlines can see how a decision will affect all of their processes, they have entirely new opportunities for optimization available to them. They also have more flexibility and can make informed decisions more quickly in response to market changes.
Two different departments are usually responsible for developing flight schedules (long- and short-term planning, market analysis, codeshare management) on the one hand and revenue management and pricing on the other hand. To achieve the optimal result for an airline, each department must be able to judge which effects its decisions have on the other department. This is exactly what the Integrated Commercial Platform makes possible. The Platform's standards also form the basis for connecting with partner airlines for cross-airline network planning.
The Integrated Commercial Platform combines proven, successful products from the NetLine and ProfitLine suites: NetLine/Plan and NetLine/Sched for long- and short-term network planning, ProfitLine/Yield for revenue management, ProfitLine/Price for pricing, NetLine/Market for market and competitor analyses and SchedConnect for codeshare management. Like all of Lufthansa Systems’ platform solutions, the Integrated Commercial Platform is completely modular and can therefore be adapted precisely to the needs of each airline.
Note to editors:
Lufthansa Systems is one of the leading IT service providers for the airline and aviation industries worldwide. As a systems integrator with one of the most modern data centers in Europe, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group covers the entire range of IT services, including consulting, the development and implementation of industry solutions as well as system operation. Headquartered in Kelsterbach near Frankfurt/Main, Germany, the company has offices in Germany and 16 other countries and employs about 3,000 people worldwide. In business year 2008, Lufthansa Systems recorded sales of EUR 657 million.
For more information, please contact:
Lufthansa Systems AG
Sandra Hammer
Corporate Communications
Tel.: +49 (0)69 696 90776
Fax: +49 (0)69 696 90777
E-mail: publicrelations@LHsystems.com