Group agreement with Lufthansa Systems optimizes codeshare connections and harmonizes administration within the Group

Raunheim | August 13, 2019–Lufthansa Systems announced that the airlines of the Lufthansa Group will continue to use its SchedConnect codeshare management solution. SchedConnect helps airlines optimize the handling of codeshare flights, reduce costs and increase revenues. By signing the group agreement, the five airlines – Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Air Dolomiti and Edelweiss Air – will also enjoy standardized administration, which will reduce complexity and costs.

“Our innovative SchedConnect codeshare management solution was already being used successfully by a few separate airlines in the Lufthansa Group. This joint agreement will now generate additional long-term synergies that will benefit all the airlines,” said Renata Widmann, Key Account Manager Lufthansa Group Airlines at Lufthansa Systems.

SchedConnect is currently the most technologically advanced system of its kind. It processes around 360 million schedule changes per year and identifies the potential effects on codeshare connections. The solution guarantees a high degree of automation in order to calculate the best codeshare connections for the 35 customers and their partners. If a minimum connecting time is not met due to a schedule change or if a partner flight is canceled, SchedConnect assigns the marketing flight number to another suitable connecting flight operated by a partner. Changes are sent through the reservation systems to travel agents and customers as well as to the operations and passenger-related systems of the airlines involved.

“In a Group with shared goals, the only way to achieve success is by acting together. Despite the airlines’ different needs, we quickly found a suitable solution through pragmatic, constructive cooperation,” said Olivier Krüger, CEO of Lufthansa Systems. “This project is another example of the role Lufthansa Systems plays as a strategic partner in the digital transformation of airlines and of the close collaboration within the Lufthansa Group.”

Lufthansa Systems’ product optimizes management of codeshare flights

Raunheim | May 30, 2018–Lufthansa Systems today announced that Egypt Air will continue to use its SchedConnect codeshare management solution for the next five years. The airline recently renewed its contract with the aviation IT provider. SchedConnect helps airlines optimize the management of codeshare flights, reduce costs and increase revenues. Egypt Air has been using the solution since 2008.

“Our experience with SchedConnect has been excellent. As a member of the Star Alliance, we benefit from synchronized flight schedules inside and outside the airline alliance, for example,” said the Manager of the Schedule Management Department at Egypt Air. “Other plus points include the high-quality service from Lufthansa Systems and the many useful features. Thanks to the high degree of automation, we have saved a significant amount of time and money in our daily codeshare management tasks since introducing SchedConnect.”

SchedConnect is currently the most technologically advanced system of its kind. The solution ensures a high degree of automation by processing schedule data from 25 customers and their codeshare partners to calculate the optimal codeshare connections for the customers’ current schedules on a daily basis. If a minimum connecting time is violated due to a schedule change or if a partner flight is canceled, SchedConnect assigns the marketing flight number to another suitable connecting flight operated by the partner. Changes are sent through the reservation systems to travel agents and customers as well as to the operations and passenger-related systems of the airlines involved. In addition to SchedConnect, Egypt Air is also using the Lido/Flight 4D flight planning solution, the NetLine/Plan network planning solution and the Sirax AirFinance Platform for revenue accounting.

“Lufthansa Systems and Egypt Air are linked by a long-standing partnership. We have worked together since 2006 and look forward to our future cooperation. The renewed contract is a sign of the quality of our products,” said Marco Cesa, Senior Vice President Regional Management EMEA at Lufthansa Systems.

Egypt Air is the national carrier of Egypt, with headquarters in Cairo. It was founded in May 1932 as the seventh airline in the world. Since starting flight operations 86 years ago, the airline has experienced significant growth. Egypt Air now serves more than 75 destinations in numerous countries, with its biggest market in Europe and the Middle East. The airline operates scheduled passenger flights as well as cargo flights on a variety of international, regional and domestic routes. Egypt Air joined the Star Alliance in 2008.

• SchedConnect contract extended for another five years

Raunheim, Germany | November 24, 2016– Lufthansa Systems today announced that Avianca Holdings will continue to manage its codeshare connections with SchedConnect. This solution from Lufthansa Systems flexibly adapts the management of codeshare flights to schedule changes and offers a high degree of automation. This enables Avianca to optimize its codeshare management while reducing costs and enhancing its competitiveness. The company recently signed a five-year contract extension for the solution.

“Even though we are pleased with the Lufthansa Systems numerous products we are using already, we evaluated the codeshare management solutions of several IT providers. Especially the concept of having a system with central flight repository and real time schedule synchronization in Avianca’s airline group leads to essential benefits for us. The comprehensive codeshare management features, the high automation and synchronization of schedules within the Star Alliance airlines and beyond is a great unique selling proposition (USP) of Lufthansa Systems’ SchedConnect solution,” said Eduardo Asmar, Senior Vice President Strategy and Network at Avianca Holdings. “We expect this to deliver significant cost savings as well as additional revenues.”

SchedConnect offers a high level of automation by receiving and sending schedule data of over 150 airlines worldwide and calculating the optimal codeshare connections for the current customer schedules on a daily basis. Each and every month, five million codeshare connections on average are calculated using SchedConnect. If a minimum connecting time cannot be ensured due to a schedule change or if a partner flight is canceled, SchedConnect assigns the marketing flight number to another suitable connecting flight operated by the partner. Changes are sent through the reservation systems to travel agents and customers as well as to the operations and passenger-related systems of the airlines involved.

Avianca Holdings and Lufthansa Systems have been commercial partners since 2004. “Avianca Holdings already uses several products from our NetLine suite as well as ProfitLine/Price and Lido/Flight. Additional solutions like NetLine/Ops and NetLine/Crew are currently being implemented,” said Greg Cork, Senior Vice President Regional Management Americas at Lufthansa Systems. “By renewing this contract, we are further expanding our long-standing partnership with a strategically important customer.”

Based in Panama, Avianca Holdings is the parent group of Avianca Colombia and the TACA Group, which in turn includes regional carriers Lacsa – Costa Rica, TACA International – El Salvador, Aviateca – Guatemala, TACA de Honduras and TACA Peru. Other group airlines include Aerogal – Ecuador and Avianca Cargo. The Avianca Holdings airlines specialize in air cargo and passenger transport and operate a combined fleet of 155 aircraft. Overall, the subsidiary airlines serve 100 direct destinations in 26 countries in North, Central and South America. Avianca Holdings is a Star Alliance member, which enables it to offer its passengers connections to more than 1,300 airports in 192 countries worldwide.

• SchedConnect adds another Star Alliance member to its user base

Raunheim, Germany | March 8, 2016– Lufthansa Systems announced today that global carrier United Airlines will use its SchedConnect IT solution for codeshare management. The two companies recently signed a long-term agreement to this effect. This solution will enable United Airlines to optimize its codeshare management, lower costs and increase revenues.

“We handle nearly 5,000 flights worldwide every day. To help ensure we are able to continue to provide reliable service to our customers, we need dependable software that meets our demands. Lufthansa Systems impressed us with the broad functionality and high quality of SchedConnect,” said Sam Patel, United’s managing director flight profitability and schedule analysis.

SchedConnect is currently the most technologically advanced system of its kind. The solution ensures a high degree of automation by processing schedule data from around 25 customers and their codeshare partners to calculate the optimal codeshare connections for the customers’ current schedules on a daily basis. If a minimum connecting time is violated due to a schedule change or if a partner flight is canceled, SchedConnect assigns the marketing flight number to another suitable connecting flight operated by the partner. Changes are sent through the reservation systems to travel agents and customers as well as to the operations and passenger-related systems of the airlines involved.

“We are delighted to have signed United Airlines as a new customer to join the growing SchedConnect community. Now all of the airlines in our clients’ trans-Atlantic joint venture (Lufthansa – together with Austrian Airlines, SWISS and Brussels Airlines – Air Canada and United Airlines) are using our codeshare management solution, which further optimizes the management of codeshare flights between all of these members,” said Alexander Ottes, Director Sales and Account Management North America at Lufthansa Systems.

To arrange codeshare connections, SchedConnect uses a database which currently holds around 39 million flights for 140 different airlines. In January 2016 alone, 34 million schedule changes were managed with the help of SchedConnect.

• Lufthansa Systems expands cooperation with Scandinavian airline

Raunheim | October 15, 2015– Lufthansa Systems today announced that the Scandinavian airline SAS (Scandinavian Airlines System) will use its SchedConnect codeshare management solution. The two companies recently signed a five-year agreement to this effect.

“At SAS, we want to make our customers’ life easier by providing hundreds of world-wide destinations. Therefore, we combine our route network with several partner networks, such as Star Alliance. To ensure an even more seamless experience, we will rely on SchedConnect from Lufthansa Systems to manage our codeshare connections efficiently in the future,” said Tobias Jönsson, Vice President Revenue Management at SAS.

SchedConnect is currently the most technologically advanced system of its kind. The
solution offers a high level of automation by receiving and sending schedule data of around 25 customers and its codeshare partners and calculating the optimal codeshare connections for the current customer schedules on a daily basis. The system processes up to 45 million schedule changes each month for its customers. If a minimum connecting time is violated due to a schedule change or if a partner flight is canceled, SchedConnect assigns the marketing flight number to another suitable connecting flight operated by the partner. Changes are sent through the reservation systems to travel agents and customers as well as to the operations and passenger-related systems of the airlines involved.

In addition to supplying and implementing SchedConnect, Lufthansa Systems will take charge of the solution’s smooth operation. The application will be sub-hosted on a high-quality server, with Lufthansa Systems handling coordination with the provider.

“As a fully integrated network carrier and member of Star Alliance, codeshare management at SAS is particularly intensive. With SchedConnect, we are offering our customer a system that can reliably process the mass and complexity of data from its 23 codeshare partners,” explained Marco Cesa, Senior Vice President Regional Management EMEA at Lufthansa Systems.

SAS consists of three Scandinavian carriers from Denmark; Norway and Sweden. The airline has its base in Stockholm and is one of the leading airlines in Europe. From its hubs in Copenhagen, Oslo and Stockholm SAS serves destinations worldwide with a fleet of 132 aircraft.

Picture description: “SchedConnect’s graphical visualization of codeshare connections facilitates user’s understanding of complex and comprehensive co-operations.”

Germany | August 11, 2015– Brussels Airlines will continue working with the SchedConnect codeshare management solution from Lufthansa Systems. The two companies recently renewed their agreement for another five years. This confirms the customer’s satisfaction with the IT solution from Lufthansa Systems. The proven codeshare management system also offers several new functionalities. Among other things, SchedConnect will make it possible to integrate the new Altea passenger service system (PSS) which is being used by Brussels Airlines.

SchedConnect calculates the optimal codeshare connections for the respective airline on a daily basis. To do this, the system processes schedule data from more than 150 airlines worldwide. If a minimum connecting time fails to be met due to a schedule change or a partner flight is canceled, the system automatically assigns the marketing flight number to another suitable connecting flight from the partner. Changes are sent through the reservation systems to travel agents and customers as well as to the operative and passenger-related systems of the airlines involved. The SchedConnect IT solution therefore offers a high degree of automation.

Brussels Airlines is the leading Belgian airline and a member of the Star Alliance. The airline offers flights to more than 90 destinations in Europe, North America and Africa. Brussels Airlines operates more than 300 flights daily with a fleet of 49 aircraft.

Abu Dhabi | December 30, 2014– Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has signed a codeshare agreement with Aerolíneas Argentinas, one of South America’s leading airlines.

Effective 1 February 2015, the agreement will offer Etihad Airways’ guests greater access to South America via Aerolíneas Argentinas’ Buenos Aires hub.

As part of the agreement, Etihad Airways will place its ‘EY’ flight code on Aerolíneas Argentinas’ operated flights across the Argentinian airline’s extensive domestic network, as well as to key destinations in South America including Uruguay, Chile and Paraguay.

Guests will be able to travel on Etihad Airways’ marketed flights to Buenos Aires and from there to 20 popular destinations in South America including: Asuncion, Bariloche, Bahia Blanca, Comodoro Rivadavia, Cordoba, El Calafate, Iguazú, Mar del Plata, Mendoza, Montevideo, Neuquén, Rio Gallegos, Rio Grande, Rosario, Salta, San Juan, Santiago de Chile, Trelew, Tucuman and Ushuaia.

Flights under the codeshare agreement can be booked from mid-January 2015 via travel agents or through the airlines’ sales offices and contact centres.

Etihad Airways’ President and Chief Executive Officer, James Hogan, said: “Codeshares are a fundamental pillar of Etihad Airways’ strategy and our new commercial partnership with Aerolíneas Argentinas is a significant development for both airlines. We are now able to enhance our business and leisure travel offering between the UAE, Argentina and onwards to the strategically important South American market.”

Aerolineas Argentinas’ President and CEO, Mariano Recalde, said: “We are delighted to sign this agreement with Etihad Airways, which offers its passengers enhanced connectivity within Argentina and the Southern Cone of the Americas, through the extensive Aerolineas network.”

In June 2013, Etihad Airways launched non-stop flights between Abu Dhabi and São Paulo, the airline’s first destination in South America. The flights currently offer 3,360 seats per week between the two cities and connect to 31 destinations across North Africa, the Arabian Gulf, the Indian Subcontinent and Asia