Lufthansa Systems Presents Protoype of New Lido/Flight 4D Product Generation

Lido/Flight User Group Conference 2017: Lufthansa Systems’ customer event focuses on interaction, information and cooperative development

Raunheim | May 31, 2017– Lufthansa Systems today announced that it will present the first Integrated Flight Support prototype, the future core module of its new Lido/Flight 4D product generation, at this year’s Lido/Flight User Group (LUG) Conference. The conference will offer an insight into technical innovations related to the flight planning system as well as an opportunity for intensive interaction among the 170 product experts and customers attending. The LUG Conference is taking place from May 31 to June 1 in Paris, the headquarters of this year’s partner airline, Air France.

“Integrating different systems is an essential aspect of modern flight planning. Flight data is very dynamic. To get an overview of the current situation in the air, everyone involved needs the same sources of information. Airports, air traffic control and customer systems should be able to exchange data in real time. This is the only way for employees on the ground and on the flight deck to make right decisions based on the same information,” said Philipp Barzen, Head of Product Strategy Lido/Flight at Lufthansa Systems.

The core features of the Lido/Flight 4D flight planning solution are the integrated and continually updated aeronautical database and the optimizer. The system calculates the most suitable route for each flight based on all flight-related data, taking into account weather conditions and the current airspace situation including any restrictions. By migrating to the new product generation, customers will benefit from a modern architecture offering even better integration of relevant data from adjacent systems, a modern graphical user interface and display, 4D optimization and extensively automated flight planning and control processes.

Lufthansa Systems is taking an agile approach to the further development of Lido/Flight 4D. This means that customers are continually involved in the process. In addition to the two big annual customer events – the LUG Conference in the spring and the LUG Forum in the fall – the Lido/Flight-Team is holding workshops and gathering feedback on new features. The second release of Lido/Flight 4D R6.2.0 is planned for the fall of 2017 and will include improvements to crew briefing and route optimization. This is followed by another important milestone in the spring of 2018, a technical release with a complete migration to Linux. The prototype, which provides a glimpse into the future of Lido/Flight 4D, goes even further: It shows the new interface as well as other new functions, such as integrated navigation maps from Lido/Navigation.

“Along with the integrated map display, we are expanding our strategic cooperation with the Lido/Flight and Lido/Navigation product teams to create even better applications for pilots,” Barzen said. One example is the new Lido/mBriefing app, a mobile briefing solution with a direct interface to the Lido/mPilot mobile navigation solution.

During the LUG Conference, product experts will explain the new features of Lido/Flight 4D to customers in various sessions. They will also talk about the technical prerequisites for migration and discuss training concepts. Lufthansa Systems is thus taking a holistic approach to flight planning optimization and supporting its customers in the areas of further development and migration.

The product known previously as Lido/Flight has performed successfully in the market for more than 20 years. Since 2015, Lufthansa Systems has been working intensively on developing the new Lido/Flight 4D generation. Around 120 airlines with a total of more than 6,000 aircraft are currently using the flight planning solution from Lufthansa Systems. More than one half of all flights in Europe are calculated using Lido/Flight 4D. In various comparative analyses based on thousands of flight plans, Lido/Flight was able to reduce fuel costs by an average of 2 percent, cut flying times by 1.9 percent and save 1.6 percent of air traffic control fees compared to its competitors. Thanks to this savings potential, Lido/Flight 4D will pay for itself after an average of about one year.