Lufthansa Systems offers a wide range of services to ensure smooth, efficient, and safe flight operations. Our Lido FlightOps Suite comprises solutions for Flight Planning, Performance Engineering, Navigation as well as Electronic Flight Bags - the complete process chain from long-range route planning and pre-flight planning to post-flight reporting, including navigation from departure to destination.
Lido Operations Center (Lido OC) – optimal flight routes save fuel
Lido OC enables airlines to optimize their flight routes in terms of fuel consumption, costs and flight time. But that's not all: With every ton of kerosene saved, CO2 emissions are cut as well. In fact, with the help of Lido OC Lufthansa was able to reduce its emissions in 2007 by 590,000 tons, a saving that will pay off two-fold for the airline once the EU will have started to include airlines in its Emission Trading Scheme.
When calculating flight routes, dispatchers must also take into account so-called Traffic Flow Restrictions defined by the authorities.
These highly complex rules
are set by air traffic control authorities in order to guarantee a smooth traffic flow while at the same time optimizing ATC
capacity and safety.
A new module of Lido OC now automatically considers
partly restricted airways, suggesting by-passes where legally permitted, for the most effective combination of airway segments.
This can yield fuel savings of up to two percent – depending on the specific operating environment of the airline.
An example may illustrate this: With an optimal flight route, it is possible to save up to four tons of kerosene on a single transatlantic flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco. That is a remarkable quantity given an airline’s yearly transport performance.
Take off at the right speed
By calculating the take-off data on the spot, Lido Topas not only simplifies flight preparation and reduces the potential for manual errors but helps airlines save fuel and increase the on-wing time of their engines.
Flight performance always under control
By monitoring the performance data of each engine and its fuel flow during the flight, the difference between an aircraft’s actual fuel consumption and the average data stated by its manufacturers can be monitored. This allows the calculation of the individual performance correction factor of each aircraft and enables airlines to further optimize trip and contingency fuel.
All solutions of our Lido FlightOps Suite rely on our own comprehensive Lido Navigation database which, amongst other things, bundles aeronautical data published worldwide. They all focus on improving flight performance by maximizing each individual flight’s payload while reducing fuel consumption and optimizing aircraft utilization.
Financial transparency
As rising fuel costs place increasing economic pressure on the aviation industry, it has become more and more important for airlines to make decisions quickly on the basis of sound financial data and analyses. SiraxView gives airlines a prompt, precise overview of their revenues and cash flow and analyzes their current financial situation, right down to the revenue of individual routes. To do this, the solution takes different sales channels and price models into account, along with the codeshare agreements, alliance flights, taxes, and fees which directly affect airline revenues.
News
easyJet optimizes flight planning with Lido OC
easyJet, Europe’s leading low-cost airline, will begin using the flight planning solution Lido Operations Center (Lido OC) to plan all its flights in the near future. Europe’s fourth-largest carrier, easyJet concluded an agreement with Lufthansa Systems to use the proven flight planning solution starting in October 2008. By optimizing flight routes, Lido OC will reduce airline fuel consumption and deliver significant cost savings.
In addition, the service package for easyJet includes the TFR (Traffic Flow Restrictions) module that can achieve further fuel savings. The TFR module is the first solution of its kind to optimize flight plans by taking temporary air traffic restrictions into account. Traffic flow restrictions are highly complex regulations which ensure that air traffic flows smoothly. The TFR module helps airlines plan their routes more effectively by making a wider variety of segments available to them, and it also saves dispatchers a great deal of effort by automatically checking the regulations for each route.
Another innovative extension automatically calculates flights which follow similar routings every time and sends the completed flight plans to the dispatcher, who simply has to approve them. This also eases the strain on flight dispatchers.
Europe's largest airline group opts for Sirax AirFinance Platform
Air France and KLM will optimize their revenue accounting processes using Lufthansa Systems’ Sirax AirFinance Platform. Air France-KLM and Lufthansa Systems have just signed a seven-year contract. The integrated IT solution will enable the two airlines to speed up their financial management processes and increase productivity.
The Sirax AirFinance Platform will standardize the revenue accounting systems and processes of both Air France and KLM, and simplify their internal billing. While the two airlines will continue to operate revenue accounting on separate environments, they will have shared access to many functions and data in the future. Europe’s largest airline group has opted for the integrated airline finance IT solution from Lufthansa Systems because it is the most advanced system available and it meets all of the given requirements.
The Sirax AirFinance Platform from Lufthansa Systems is the first integrated platform to optimize all of an airline’s financial processes. Sirax controls and manages an airline's billing process by performing a fully automatic check of ticket sales against actual flight data. Integrated sub-processes also support the billing of interline flights between airlines. Based on this check, the actual revenues are then calculated within a very short timeframe.
Aeroflot Nord increases revenues with comprehensive IT solution
The Russian airline Aeroflot Nord will optimize its revenue management processes using ProfitLine/Yield Rembrandt from Lufthansa Systems. Both companies recently signed a five-year contract to this effect. The IT solution will enable Aeroflot Nord to optimize the saleable capacities and thus increase revenues.
ProfitLine/Yield Rembrandt has been specifically designed to meet the needs of mid-size airlines and low-cost carriers. The system covers all core processes of revenue management – from data loading and demand forecasting to optimizing availability data – and offers an extensive reporting tool. The system puts Aeroflot Nord in a position to recognize market opportunities at an early stage and to react faster to market changes than its competitors. Aeroflot Nord chose ProfitLine/Yield Rembrandt due to the high quality and extensive functionality of the IT solution.
Lufthansa Systems considerably expanded its position in the Russian market last year, establishing a sales presence in Moscow at the end of 2007. Aeroflot Nord, headquartered in Arkhangelsk in North Russia, was established under the name Arkhangelsk United Aviation Squadron in 1963. After the takeover by Aeroflot in 2004, the airline was renamed Aeroflot Nord. The regional carrier operates a fleet of 40 aircraft; serving 27 destinations in Russia. Other customers of Lufthansa Systems in Russia currently include Rossiya Russian Airlines, S7 Airlines, Air Union, and AirBridgeCargo Airlines.
Trends
Safe credit card transactions – vital for the airline world
The increasing abuse of credit card data has prompted the major payment brands to define a new standard with binding rules for the treatment of credit card data (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard – PCI DSS). All companies working with credit or debit card data are obliged to implement and comply with the PCI standard, which comprises around 380 detailed requirements. If they fail to do so, the companies face fines and may lose their authorization to process card-based transactions.
In the aviation industry in particular, many services are based on credit card details, including ticket purchases as well as non-financial transactions such as self-service check-in and mileage credit.
Lufthansa Systems developed the PCI Compliance Engine which enables its customers to reduce the effort required to meet the PCI DSS security requirements. This new security solution takes an innovative approach to ensuring that all card transactions comply with the PCI DSS. Instead of protecting a credit card number by following all 380 security rules, the card number is replaced with an artificial ID in the IT systems involved. The tool is the only data unit to centrally isolate and store the credit card numbers. Since the artificial ID is neither the credit card number nor an encrypted version of the number, the PCI DSS requirements no longer apply. Thus, we fulfill the 380 rules in a very simple way.
Smooth flights with NetLine/Crew
For those responsible for crew management, the production of duty rosters for flight crews is a complex task, and one that requires thorough planning. A smooth flight is the result of crew capacity planning that takes place months beforehand – how many crew members will be needed, and when and where? Good planning includes consideration of factors such as language skills, routes, and whether the crew is qualified for a particular aircraft. In addition, the plan must reflect relevant contractual provisions, the duty wishes of the crew members themselves, and the airline’s need to use its crews profitably.
Even a perfect plan cannot be regarded as unchangeable. Unforeseen events such as road congestion or sickness of crew members can arise at any time and require rapid responses from crew planners. Coordinating shifts means reacting flexibly and making spot decisions, e.g. bringing in crew members on standby.
With its crew management solution NetLine/Crew, Lufthansa Systems offers support for every phase of crew management, from construction pairing to crew rostering, crew tracking and post-flight activities such as the production of analyses, statistics and documentation. The newest NetLine/Crew Suite optimizers – Pairing xOPT, Fairness xOPT and Preferences xOPT - represent innovative, high-performance modules that extend the NetLine/Crew performance range even further.
In addition to significantly improving the quality of the crew planning process, the new optimizers save airlines a great deal of time and money. A team of highly qualified mathematicians and IT specialists at Lufthansa Systems continues to develop the NetLine/Crew suite of solutions to ensure correct and maximally efficient staffing for each flight now and in the future.
How Lufthansa Systems provides for seamless work processes all over the world
Data networks are an important part of a company’s IT infrastructure. They connect employees and departments at different company sites and ensure not only the seamless exchange of information, but also the availability of numerous processes.
Companies that are internationally active are faced with the decision of whether to set up and maintain a global network themselves or to utilize the networks of regional providers. While the former option is extremely time-consuming, costly and often simply impractical, the latter strategy still requires considerable administrative effort.
Lufthansa Systems has developed and implemented an approach that provides secure, high-performance networking for our customers, ensuring in particular that our service provision closely matches their business processes. Following the principles of a multi-provider network, the customer network we operate extends over the entire globe. This means for our customers that our network solution is made up of the best possible sub-networks available from the various regions and local providers without spending own efforts in administrating several providers.
Airlines thus can benefit from the best possible quality and best prices that are appropriate to markets in their region – resulting in sustainable cost optimization.
In addition the network works as a service platform with integrated connectivity to airline-specific services like global distribution systems, customs and eBorder services, such as US Homeland Security or Korean Customs. There are several customers already benefiting from this solution. These customers are aviation customers or airline alliances, for example.
