Digitalization & Innovation

As an integral part of the aviation ecosystem we as Lufthansa Systems would like to introduce this new blog to share our latest views on the current market environment and especially our insights on how innovative technologies could help airlines thrive in the new normal. In this first post, we will dive into the seven most pressing challenges, currently facing the airline industry from our point of view.

The efficient management of airport slots is very challenging nowadays. Especially in these bumpy times, airlines face many ad-hoc schedule changes resulting in high amounts of slot change messages on the day of ops. As a consequence, this leads to great efforts for slot coordinator communication requiring efficient IT solutions. This is where the NetLine/Sched Slot Manager Short Term Mode comes in!

The situation of the last months has drastically increased the demand to work virtually with customers. In this blog we would like to share our learnings regarding remote workshops during the Corona crisis.

One of the current hot topics in airline revenue management and distribution is dynamic pricing. However, most endeavors focus on dynamic prices for the seat, while little effort thus far has been spent on dynamic pricing of ancillaries. We want to change this by looking into dynamic pricing for the first bag ancillary.

In addition to transparency and accuracy, the evaluation of new routes is primarily about speed: changes in the market must be responded to quickly, new routes must be evaluated at record speed. Of course this requires the use of modern technology. In this blog I will explain what Multithreading is and how our NetLine/Plan customers benefit from it.

Flight irregularities cannot be prevented, but the way to handle them makes the difference. Please read this blog about how automation may support the load controller in managing these situations.

Digitalization is among the top objectives of any airline’s business strategy. This White Paper / Case Study outlines how the Future (Digitalized) Ramp of an airline might look like.

Airlines can achieve a better efficiency in their load control divisions by following the “rights, roles and workflow support”-concept. Please read this blog to get more details.

This blog post continues the discussion, why minding passenger connections is so crucial for any network carrier. We outline challenges, a roadmap and a passenger connection evolution ladder for decision support in scheduling.

The ability of offering passenger connections is one of the unique selling propositions of any network carrier. Enabling this USP requires a smart scheduling approach, in which the network goes through constant optimization and in which the individual itineraries (offered for purchase and booked already) are protected as good as possible. This blog post discusses reasons why minding passenger connections is so crucial, why modern scheduling systems often lack Origin and Destination (OnD) decision support and how smart system design can bridge this gap.

Efficient management of airport slots is very challenging nowadays. Air traffic grows and so does the amount of fully coordinated airports. This makes the Initial Submission more and more complex. This blog is therefore about automation strategies within this important Slot Management process.

Efficient management of airport slots is very challenging nowadays. Air traffic grows and so does the amount of fully coordinated airports. Especially during the Initial Submission airlines needs to be sure to achieve an optimum slot utilization. Automation can support here tremendously.  

At the end of February, Lufthansa Systems had the opportunity to take part in Mobile World Congress presenting an innovative UTM system which will be tested this year together with mobile operator from Latvia – LMT. The main purpose is to approve or deny unmanned operations based on terrain, airspace and current weather conditions.

Digitalized Load Control on the ramp means to provide the ramp agent with a mobile solution that allows to update important load data directly from the apron – without any paperwork or phone. Please read more in this blog.

Punctual turnarounds have become a critical factor for success for airline operations, though it is still a relatively uncharted territory for many airlines. Therefore it shall be part of any airlines digitalization strategy.  The biggest obstacle however is the laborious gathering of the necessary data. “Turnaround Management 3.0” might be a solution.

For Load Control organizations automation is the main driver to execute the Weight and Balance process more efficiently. Within this blog I would like to share with you my thoughts about the importance of automated background checks provided by a fully automated application support.

With the release of Lido/eRouteManual 4.9, we are providing new features which will save time and ease pilots' workflow. The latest release of our Windows-based application includes four new features: runway pre-selection in the Lido/AMM, configuration options for company polygons, support of new position data providers, and Significant Meteorological Information (SIGMET) texts displayed directly within the attribute lookup. 

Coping with ambiguous regulations and effects of digitalization: Please read this blog that describes the challenges for airlines’ CAMO/MRO organizations and how CAMO/MRO consulting can support

More and more airports become slot coordinated nowadays – but two obstacles apply hereby: First, this information exchange between airlines and airport coordinator is still done manually on an email base. Second, this process produces useless waste response times. The solution for the first deal breaker are slot management tools. The solution for the second obstacle are web services, which is the main topic for the following blog.

From a project management point of view a big IT transformation project contains the three important steps: (1) Assessment of the current processes and data flows, (2) Description of the (target-) IT architecture and (3) Definition and documentation of the requirements. In this blog we would like to provide you with some insights, as each of these steps may contain some tripping hazards. 

From the 13th to 15th of November, over 300 aviation professionals headed to London Heathrow for the EFB Users Forum. Among the delegates was our Product Owner for Lido/eRouteManual, Andreas Medlhammer. Read on for his summary and key insights from the event.

How to close the “digital gap” in the customer journey at minimum cost

Optimize on-time performance based on delay risk prediction scheduling until day of Ops

Future Ramp: In part 2 my blog sequence “How to create a good Ramp Agent Dashboard” I add five more recommendations for a professional Ramp Agent Dashboard design. If you like to hear more about the Ramp Agent Workspace Solution approach, come and listen to my presentation in one week at the Airline & Aerospace MRO & Flight Operations IT Conference APAC, Bangkok, Thailand

Often organizations are stuck in their old structures in times of fast growth, often manpower and resources are limited, sometimes a “we always did it like that” policy prevents required adjustments to changing environments. It is time for a change.

Dashboards provide information at-a-glance visibility into the business performance. Therefore every Ramp Solution shall be equipped with such an overview screen. This blog describes some set up tips.

Are you a digitalized airline? I am sure, you will say “Yes” or “We are just transforming”. I totally agree with you, when looking at the area of the passenger travel experience. But do your digitalization activities also include the ramp? If not, I would like to invite you to follow this blog series about the “Future Ramp”.