Lufthansa general manager Southern Africa, Andre Schulz, states that Lufthansa’s commitment to progression in the continual improvement of the airline industry is clearly demonstrated in the group’s investment into innovation within all aspects of air travel, specifically with the aim to improve the traveller’s overall experience.
“The traveller’s experience is at the heart of everything we do, and we understand that the digital space is where travellers' needs and requirements can best be met. Through the continual improvement of the experience, by offering the traveller more and immediate information, we can ensure that traveller expectations are not only met, but exceeded, thereby setting a new standard of service for the industry”.
The digital innovations showcased included those targeting the leisure traveler, corporate traveller, travel management companies, and even pilots and crew.
Developed by SWISS, Lufthansa and MyAustrian, passengers can now browse, order and purchase items from the entire on-board duty-free catalog before their flight. Products range from standard articles such as fragrances or alcohol to the airline’s branded mobile sim cards, as well as highly exclusive products such as the Breitling Navitimer SWISS Boeing 777 Limited Edition. Once purchased, the basket of items is prepared and delivered directly to the travellers seat during the flight.
Developed by Eurowings and the Lufthansa Innovation Hub in cooperation with fintech start-up Optionpay, the CompChoice platform allows customers, through a new 24/7 digital self-service process, to handle their compensation claim directly with the airline. This will allow the airline to process more customer compensation claims at a lower cost while affording customers ease of use at their own speed, and increasing the total pay-out sum.
Through SMILE, the Lufthansa Group provides travellers with tailored and personalized products, services and communication, focusing on their needs along the entire customer journey. The overall goal of SMILE is to further spotlight the customer by means of individualised and innovative solutions in terms of communication, sales, and services. By actively deploying an innovative and original IT infrastructure based on Big Data trends and by applying data analytics paired with the most modern data sources, SMILE achieves personalisation and facilitates innovation. The group is building and applying far-reaching analytics abilities - The Analytics Center of Excellence systematically collects and analyses relevant Big Data components, enabling them to gain insights about customer needs and eventually enhance their travel experiences.
Developed by the Lufthansa Innovation Hub, the world's first personal theater brings big-screen entertainment to the customer's personal space. Customers can view all their favorite entertainment in vivid detail on this video headset with amazing audio and HD clarity, at home or at 30,000 feet. The Avegant Glyph plugs into any HDMI-supported device and delivers your existing content in a way you’ve never experienced before. Customers can stream any type of existing media, including an immersive 360-degree experience and side-by-side 3D, in amazing detail. In addition, The Avegant Glyph lets customers see above and below the visual field, so you can easily orient yourself to your surroundings and not give up spatial awareness.
Developed for MyAusrian, 360 °Embraer Ansicht provides a virtual view of the Emraer Cabin using Google Business View, offering a what-you-see-is-what-you-get presentation of ancillary services and advanced seat reservation.
EU Regulation 1169/2011 demands that “the provision of allergen information is a requirement for all stages of the food chain i.e. food intended for the final consumer, food supplied by mass caterers and foods supplied to mass caterers.” LSG Skychefs turned this topic around to a customer value, asking the question: tell me your allergies and I tell you what you can eat. The build app asks for your allergies and shows you all allowed/not allowed meal components that are on board, including their allergens.
No matter which problem a Lufthansa customer is facing today he/she can usually address it to the Lufthansa Customer Service via phone. Furthermore, before a problem can be solved, the customer has to provide his/her personal details. This costs time and is inefficient. Developed by Lufthansa, Lufthansa InTouch and the Lufthansa Innovation Hub, the Customer Service App makes this obsolete by combining personal details from the Lufthansa App with the actual customer issue and transmitting it to the customer service representative. In addition, the Customer Service App offers new contact channels like Call Back and Chat.
A box is just waste that protects your meal. That is an important function. But what if we extend that function and let your box provide a multitude of information, for example, about the content of the box, like allergens or the recipe? And what if we also add useful hints about your destination, shopping tips or even a direct weblink to the best restaurant in town? It’s all happening on LSGs Smart Box. Explore the box with your smart phone app and see what information you find.
Developed by Retail inMotion and Lufthansa’s Miles and More, Lufthansa is launching a new digital experience for crew which will allow them to process sales and payments directly on the deployed crew iPad mini. The software will allow for digital activities commonly required by all group airlines, integrating with flight schedule, crew rostering and the passenger manifest. It will allow direct sales as well as pre-order, cross-sell, digital shopping, ancillaries and seat upgrades. Inflight retail has never been more essential to airline bottom lines or to the provision of a great passenger experience onboard.
“The progress of digitalisation is not limited to only one of our stakeholders; digital innovation has the potential to improve every interaction with every stakeholder, increasing process efficiencies, and making the experience better. This is why all processes and stakeholders are considered in the digitalisation strategy,” says Schulz.
“It is truly an exciting time to be a traveller, or to be working within the travel industry. Digitalisation is changing the way airlines and partners to the airline industry work and continues to make the travel experience better, more efficient, and more enjoyable. While many of these innovations may not yet be available on flights to and from South Africa, we are confident that constant innovation and adoption of digitalisation by airlines within the Lufthansa group, as well as within other airline groups will happen, and happen sooner than many would expect,” concludes Schultz.
