Lufthansa Systems welcomes around 600 participants to the Airline Forum in Berlin, one of the leading user conferences in the airline IT world. The 16th edition of the event thus sets a new attendance record. Lufthansa Systems will bring together more than 80 airlines from all over the world from 9th-11th October to inform them about the latest developments in the operations portfolio. This year’s focus is on the topic of artificial intelligence and the opportunities these technologies offer for airline operations.

Stefanie Neumann and Dr. Thomas Wittmann, CEOs of Lufthansa Systems, kicked off the Airline Forum and emphasized that Lufthansa Systems is not only a service provider, but also masters current challenges together with its customers and seizes opportunities to set new standards for intelligent solutions in the aviation industry.

Jan-Peter Gänse, Head of NetLine, subsequently presented the vision of NetLine products for the coming years. In addition to the content, the community idea and the platform for personal exchange is an important aspect of the Airline Forum. This year, further airlines opted for NetLine products: Boom Supersonic, Lion Air and Porter Airlines. Other customers will be using additional NetLine modules in the future. On the evening of the 9th October, Lufthansa Systems created a festive setting for all participants under the motto “Airlinale” in which these new customers were welcomed into the “NetLine family”.

“The Airline Forum is the central platform for our customer contact. In personal exchanges with airline experts, we receive important feedback and impulses for the further development of our products. In addition, the aviation industry as a whole is facing major challenges. In many areas, they can only be overcome by working together. We think that the community idea is a central building block for this,” says Jan-Peter Gänse.

The application scenarios for artificial intelligence in the airline industry are diverse. Flight operations controllers, for example, make complex decisions every day. They react to unforeseen events to minimise their impact on the flight plan. To find the best solution, multiple sources of information must be analysed within minutes. This decision-making process becomes a major challenge as more and more data sources are added and the need to constantly optimise aircraft capacity increases delay risks. One of the solutions, NetLine/Ops ++ aiOCC uses Artificial Intelligence to monitor all events around aircraft, rotation, passengers and crew, to detect delay risks early and make suggestions to adjust the flight plan.

Artificial intelligence can also help avoid delays on the ground. “Deep Turnaround” focuses on the turnaround process. Using video recordings, an algorithm analyses the process steps (e.g. passengers disembarked, cleaning started, catering on site, tanker missing) and informs all parties involved about the current status in real time. If necessary, they can take countermeasures to speed up the process or actively counteract emerging shortages, thus ensuring punctual handling.

About Lufthansa Systems

Lufthansa Systems GmbH is a leading airline IT provider determined to shape the future of digital aviation. It draws its unique strengths from its ability to combine profound industry know-how with forward-looking technological expertise and has lived by its slogan “We’re into IT” for more than 25 years. A wholly-owned subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group, the company offers its more than 350 customers an extensive range of successful IT products and services for the aviation industry, many of which are market leaders. Lufthansa Systems’ pioneering portfolio covers all of an airline’s business processes – in the flight deck, in the cabin and on the ground. As a tech company and airline IT provider, Lufthansa Systems is committed to identifying its own environmental footprint and improving that of its airline customers across the globe. Headquartered in Raunheim near Frankfurt/Main, Germany, Lufthansa Systems employs around 2,800 people at its locations in 16 countries.

All images credited to Lufthansa Systems