Flight delays, rebookings due to missed flights and extreme weather conditions are some of the many factors that can disrupt a flight schedule.
The Lufthansa Group airlines are keen to return to a stable flight plan as quickly as possible, which is why the organisation has chosen Google Cloud as a strategic partner to improve its operational performance and minimise the impact of irregularities on its passengers.
The aim is to build a platform that will suggest scenarios to return to a stable flight plan in the event of an irregularity so that passengers still arrive at their destinations as punctually and comfortably as possible. This will be done by merging data from various processes that are relevant for stable operations (for example aircraft replacement and maintenance as well as crew scheduling).
“By combining Google Cloud’s technology with Lufthansa Group’s operational expertise, we are driving the digitisation of our operation even further,” says Dr Detlef Kayser, member of the executive board of the Lufthansa Group. “This will enable us to identify possible flight irregularities even earlier and implement countermeasures at an early stage.”
For example, flights are sometimes delayed due to weather conditions such as snowfall and passengers might miss their connecting flights. In the future, it will be possible to offer faster rebooking possibilities across all four hubs for Lufthansa Group passengers thanks to systems based on artificial intelligence.
“Through this collaboration, we have a significant opportunity to revolutionise the future of airline operations,” says Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud. “We’re bringing the best of Lufthansa Group and Google Cloud together to solve airlines’ biggest challenges and positively impact the travel experience of the more than 145-million passengers that fly annually with them.”
A joint team of operations experts, developers and engineers from the Lufthansa Group and software engineers from Google Cloud will be developing and testing the appropriate platform. The test launch will take place in Zurich with SWISS.