Context May, 2010

Newsletter for Media Representatives

Hot Topics

Integrated Commercial Platform: Faster decisions let airlines fly ahead of the competition

Lufthansa Systems launches web-based portal for Integrated Commercial Platform

In good times as in difficult times, steering an airline requires reliable up-to-date information. The new web portal of Lufthansa Systems’ Integrated Commercial Platform (ICP) gives decision makers at all levels the data they need to get the full picture. Everything is just a mouse-click away. As a result, the portal speeds up decision-making and enhances an airline’s competitiveness. The ICP covers all of an airline’s network and revenue management processes. It ensures a comprehensive overview of the information relevant to commercial planning and gives airlines a solid data foundation. The portal’s modern, intuitive user interface gives users in any department quick access to the fares, flight frequencies, average yields and market shares of the complete network as well as information on offers from competitors. It previously took employees a great deal of effort to compile this data from various applications, which was sometimes even contradictory depending on its source. A sophisticated user access concept ensures that users receive the information most relevant to them. This compilation delivers an important added value to the user. Working with the portal, airlines can make more effective, market-oriented decisions. Instead of deciding based solely on their own data, employees from scheduling and revenue management can now access all critical information from any department. This makes it easier to evaluate how individual decisions will affect each department and enables an integrated approach to airline management. The Integrated Commercial Platform combines proven, successful products from the NetLine and ProfitLine ranges: NetLine/Plan and NetLine/Sched for long- and short-term flight 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. With the ICP web portal, Lufthansa Systems has once again proven one of its key strengths: Listening to the market and using its expertise to turn requirements into sophisticated solutions - enabling airlines to manage their business in the best possible way.

Lufthansa Systems keeps dispatchers and pilots up to date

More than one million NOTAMs per year – Processing within 30 minutes of receipt

The situation in the airspace and at airports can always change on short-notice. This has a direct impact on the flight operation of an airline. Restrictions – e. g. due to volcanic ash as experienced lately – must be taken into account during the calculation of flight routes, and pilots must be informed about them. Such restrictions are issued as NOTAMs (Notifications to Airmen) by a country's Aeronautical Information Services (AIS). NOTAMs provide information on changes at airports and in the air which become effective within a short time frame. Common examples are the closure of a runway due to unforeseen repair work or the closure of parts of the airspace due to military activity. Lufthansa Systems processes up to 4,000 NOTAMs on an average day to ensure that its navigation database is up-to-date. Drawing on this navigation database, Lufthansa Systems flight planning solution Lido/Flight automatically calculates the optimal route for each flight based on fuel consumption, flight time or costs and creates reliable briefing documents. The company’s own database contains aeronautical data available worldwide. Besides NOTAMs, this includes the departures, approach and arrival procedures of nearly 10,000 airports as well as 11,000 airway segments and 129,000 waypoints. In 2009, experts of Lufthansa Systems processed about one million NOTAMs. Since the notifications are often valid immediately after publication, it is very important to promptly assess the information so that a flight planning solution can take any applicable restrictions into account for planning an optimal routing. The quality of our aeronautical data is crucial for the quality of the optimization results of the routing. Therefore, as soon as a NOTAM is received it is classified according to urgency and prepared for further processing. Lufthansa Systems ensures that all NOTAMs which become valid within the next 24 hours are processed within 30 minutes of receipt. As soon as the published restriction is available within Lufthansa Systems’ aeronautical database, our flight planning solution Lido/Flight considers it during all calculations. This is one of the reasons for the effectiveness of the Traffic Flow Restrictions (TFR) functionality of Lido/Flight. Traffic flow restrictions are highly complex rules set by air traffic control authorities in order to guarantee a smooth traffic flow while at the same time optimizing airspace capacity and safety. Common examples are temporary restrictions of certain flight paths, restrictions for certain aircraft, as well as flight levels or routes. The TFR add-on automatically considers even partly restricted airways, suggesting by-passes where legally permitted, for the most effective combination of airway segments. In addition, pilots receive all of the NOTAMs relevant for their flight in their briefing packages. Our experts pre-sort and prioritize these NOTAMs and often add explanatory comments to them.

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