Articles tagged “Lufthansa Group”

What are the chances that Lufthansa ends up owning at least parts of Alitalia and Condor? It doesn't seem enthusiastic about either, but it might be better than letting a competitor get hold of them — as long as regulators agree.

Airlines know passengers care about the environment, so they're all ready with talking points to provide their sustainability bonafides. But many are changing little about their strategies.

Lufthansa Group was terrified it would repeat past mistakes, so it built an airline to compete with Norwegian Air and other low-cost, long-haul carriers. Now that airline, called Eurowings, is kaput, and Lufthansa can chalk up another mistake.

European governments once believed they could rely on the market to ensure their links to the outside world. But many are starting to become more protective of their national airlines. In many ways, it is a return to the past.

This year Lufthansa made a series of small moves that, when looked at together, reveal a doubling down on its multi-front strategy to pressure Amadeus, Travelport, and especially Sabre to conform more to its preferred airline distribution practices. Connect the dots, and it looks like a low-grade war.

Lufthansa Group has responded to digital disruption by creating a company within a company, Yilu. The group's low-cost carrier Eurowings has already begun using the subsidiary's tools for cross-selling taxi rides.

Lufthansa Group's Airlinecheckins.com may not be the most amazing innovation ever, but considering it only took about 30,000 euros to build, the return on investment has been impressive. The platform allows customers to check in for flights on more than 200 airlines. And as the facilitator, Lufthansa gets a lot of data about passenger preferences.

It's not easy to bring the 'fail fast' mantra to an airline. But through its innovation hub in Berlin, Lufthansa is trying to bring some tech-world principles to the airline business. That's a good thing.

Like many airlines, Lufthansa worries that other companies could disrupt parts of its business like Netflix did with movies. To prevent that, it has launched a data-based offensive.

Bots have come a long way since Alaska Airlines introduced 'Ask Jenn' about a decade ago. But they're still not perfect. At least for now, we'd rather have a human touch.