July 8, 2004

TACA, (Air Transport of the American Continent), leading airline in Latin America, will soon use Lufthansa Systems' IT solutions for most of its core processes. This includes NetLine products for flight planning, operations control, and crew management, the revenue management system ProfitLine/Yield and MultiHost, which automates key airline-relevant core processes for passengers in reservations and at airports. In addition, all aspects of flight route planning at TACA will be supported by Lido Operation Center (Lido OC).

For Lufthansa Systems, this is the successful conclusion of yet another major contract. In partnership with Amadeus, the full service IT provider will deliver a comprehensive package of IT solutions for TACA. Lufthansa Systems’ extensive know-how was a major factor in TACA’s decision to award the five-year contract. Another decisive factor was the attractive cost-benefit relationship for these powerful products. "The use of these advanced and integrated Lufthansa Systems’ IT solutions will allow us to achieve even higher levels of customer satisfaction by significantly improving the overall quality of our services, and enhance the efficiency of our operational procedures and the profitability of our airline," commented Alfredo Schildknecht, President of TACA.

The IT solution MultiHost combined with Amadeus’ comprehensive platform for sales and reservation will provide TACA with all functionalities necessary to automate the core processes of sales, ticketing and passenger handling, and by integrating these processes will ensure optimal interaction among them. The ergonomic user interface FrontLine, which incorporates a considerable amount of process intelligence, supports a service-oriented dialogue with the passenger and can be handled intuitively.

For the areas of Schedule Management, Crew Management and Operations Control, Lufthansa Systems will implement and operate NetLine for TACA. NetLine allows more efficient use of the aircraft fleet, faster, more economical reactions to flight plan changes and optimally organized crew management procedures. Thanks to its modular structure, each individual component alone produces significant added value for the customer. However, for TACA, the full potential is realized through the combination and integration of the modules, which is further supplemented by the implementation of ProfitLine/Yield, a component of Lufthansa Systems' revenue management system.

With this specific tool TACA will be able to analyze the complete itineraries of passengers based on origin and destination in passenger name records in order to arrive at its capacity utilization forecasts.

In the areas of flight planning and dispatch, TACA will also rely on Lufthansa Systems from now on by using the powerful Lido Operation Center (Lido OC) solution, the world’s leading airline solution in this area of operations, which optimizes essential processes in flight path and route planning. These applications and IT services are provided under an Application Service Providing (ASP) model, in which several companies access the same applications in parallel on the same hardware via the internet and are thereby able to benefit from the resulting cost advantages. Shared maintenance and enhancement costs, in addition to the fully automated processes themselves, lead to considerable cost savings for the airlines involved.

Winning the TACA contract is another important step for Lufthansa Systems in the American market and confirms the company’s strategy of consistently improving its market position in North, Central and South America. “For us, the TACA contract has an exemplary nature, as it allows us to give an impressive demonstration of the considerable advantages we are able to offer our customers in the region“, explained Dr. Gunter Küchler, Managing Director of Lufthansa Systems Group GmbH.

Note to editors:

TACA flies to 19 countries with 34 international destinations within the Americas and 77 flights within Central America. TACA offers 10 direct routes from Central America to the United States, the best connections within Central America and the most complete hub to South America. The airline provides transportation to more than 3 million passengers a year. TACA operates the youngest, all-Airbus-aircraft fleet on the American continent. Its fleet is one of the most modern in the world, with 28 Airbus airplanes that are recognized globally for their technological innovations, efficiency, and the additional comfort they offer to their passengers.

Lufthansa Systems is one of the leading IT service providers for the airline and aviation industries worldwide. As systems integrator, the wholly-owned subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group covers the entire range of IT services, including consulting, development, implementation and operation. Lufthansa Systems provides its IT infrastructure and operations services to a variety of industries. Headquartered in Kelsterbach near Frankfurt/Main, Germany, the company has branches in Germany and 13 countries and employs about 4,400 people worldwide. In business year 2003, Lufthansa Systems recorded sales of EUR 610.7 million.

Amadeus Global Travel Distribution (MAD: AMS) is a leading IT solutions provider to the airline industry, providing a Customer Management Systems portfolio, including: Altéa Sell (distribution), Altéa Plan (inventory management system) and Altéa Fly (departure control system). British Airways, Qantas and Finnair are the first customers to implement these solutions. e-Travel, Amadeus’ e-commerce business unit, is the global leader in online travel technology and corporate travel management solutions. More information about Amadeus is available at: www.amadeus.com.