Lufthansa Group Centralizes Planning, Keeps PaxEx Distributed

Cooperation within the Lufthansa Group airlines is shifting, with network decisions further consolidating to headquarters. The move aims to optimize the Group’s route network and passenger flows across the Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, and Brussels Airlines brands, among other changes.

In the future, network management for short- and medium-haul flights of all hub airlines will also be steered group-wide. This will be done in close coordination with the airlines. This model has already been successfully established for ten years for the long-haul offerings. This means that the steering of the entire commercial offering management will now be bundled under the responsibility of group-wide airline functions. Guests who already use more than one group company for their travel will benefit from an even better coordinated range of services. In addition, efficiency will increase, and decisions can be made more quickly.

– Lufthansa Group Statement

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In addition to all route planning now being managed at the group level other departments will also see a shift. Many IT and Digital Experience efforts, for example, with further consolidate, continuing a long-running effort. Nearly a decade ago the Group redeveloped the web and booking infrastructure, allowing each airline to customize the look-and-feel of their site, while ensuring consistent execution on back-end functions. That also extends to the airline apps. Moving forward, a “Group Function Board” will oversee all IT, led by by CTO Grazia Vittadini.

Digital innovation will similarly centralize. The Group’s “Digital Hangar” tech accelerator will consolidate under the Innovation and Tech Factory.

But not all decisions are moving to a centralized process.

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Most notably, the Group states, “airlines will continue to make their own decisions about the customer experience of their guests. This applies, for example, to the in-flight product, catering, lounges in the home markets, and passenger service.”

This non-consolidation aligns with the recent dissolution of the coordinated efforts to manage the Future InterContinental Experience (i.e. Allegris/Swiss Senses). It is still possible the Group airlines will benefit from economies of scale in making some purchases for those parts of the operations. But travelers should expect that the travel experience will remain differentiated among the group memebers.

The Group also shares that flight operations will remain in the purview of each carrier rather than centralized.