Lufthansa Systems' solutions for the airline and aviation industry have given the company a leadership position. Thanks to years of experience within the Lufthansa Group, the company is highly knowledgeable about the special requirements of airline-specific business processes. During the past ten years, Lufthansa Systems has developed a portfolio of products and services that covers all airline processes, including network planning and control, revenue management and pricing, as well as passenger-related processes such as reservation, check-in, baggage handling, route planning, and areas such as logistics and aircraft maintenance. This portfolio offers our customers a basis for greater productivity and increased earnings, and ultimately reduces costs.

Focus on passenger systems

Lufthansa Systems' passenger system provides applications and IT services that integrate and automate the core processes of a passenger airline.

In recent years, Lufthansa Systems has systematically renewed a number of components of its passenger system. With the FACE project – Future Airline Core Environment – our modernization program has reached a decisive phase. The new system will offer airlines a hosting solution for all passenger processes that is independent of global distribution systems. It offers airlines a choice of distribution channels and provides greater flexibility, enhancing the ability to respond quickly to changes in the market as they happen. The system also allows Lufthansa Systems to customize its hosting solutions to meet the needs of airlines with different business models.

The FlexLine product line, which is designed specially for low-cost carriers, is an example of the modular structure of Lufthansa Systems IT solutions. Thanks to the "pay for what you use" principle, customers pay only for the functions they actually use. The product line includes an Internet booking engine and a booking GUI for call centers. It can be expanded with a revenue management system customized speci­fically for the needs of low-cost carriers.

Efficient network management

Fleet planning is as essential to a network carrier as a high quality route network and an optimal flight plan. Every airline needs efficient network management to make the most of its resources. The NetLine product line, which covers all airline network planning and control processes, gives Lufthansa Systems a leading position in the international market. NetLine takes into account all the parameters relevant to network management with exacting calculations.

Every single component of this modular solution provides substantial added value, although the system's full potential is achieved only when several modules are combined and integrated. Through the continued development of features such as the optimization tools, this advanced decision making solution from Lufthansa Systems helps airlines to stay ahead of the competition. This enables Lufthansa Systems to offer its airline customers a high degree of efficiency, faster and economically sensible reactions to flight plan changes, and an optimal crew management.

Revenue management

It is the aim of every airline to achieve the highest possible revenue from each flight and this requires close collaboration between pricing and revenue management. The IT solution ProfitLine is based on sophisticated analysis, forecasting and optimization methods and is the result of many years of experience in the business of revenue management. ProfitLine's strength is that it enables airlines to optimize capacity utilization according to demand and to quantify and simulate the effects of changes in the market and in competitive conditions.

The IT solution is suitable for airlines of every size. The ProfitLine/Yield Rembrandt module, for example, has been specially adapted to meet the needs of low-cost carriers. The system permanently monitors incoming bookings and closes cheap fare categories as soon as it is clear that there is sufficient demand to fill the aircraft at higher ticket prices.

Airline Flight Support

In the field of Airline Flight Support, Lufthansa Systems supplies international airlines with products and services for flight preparation and supervision. To improve cost efficiency and operational flexibility, aeronautical data, systems and work processes are integrated into these products. The primary aim of these electronic flight support solutions is to improve flight performance by maximizing payload, reducing fuel consumption and optimizing aircraft utilization.

All of the innovative IT solutions for Airline Flight Support draw upon the resources of the Lido navigation database, which contains all aeronautical data available worldwide. Typical of these solutions is the Lido Operation Center (Lido OC), which calculates optimum flight paths while taking into account flight-related information such as weather data and the latest aeronautical restrictions. In addition to using information from the database, Lido OC can access general and customer-specific aeronautical data. To supplement the comprehensive support service for Lido IC, a Lido Helpdesk is also available around the clock for technical and operational queries. The South American airline TACA joined major airlines like Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Air Canada, and British Airways when it opted for the powerful Lido OC solution in 2004.

Also based on the Lido navigation database is the Lido electronic Route Manual – a unique new development in database-assisted chart generation. The charts differ considerably from the charts previously used because they are no longer drawn by hand but created electronically from a database.
(For more information about the Lido electronic Route Manual, please see "Innovation is the path to success" background text.)