Two of Lufthansa Group's top sales executives—Lufthansa hub
airlines SVP of sales Heike Birlenbach and Frank Naeve, who
took over as VP of sales for the Americas this month—met recently with
journalists at the group's Leadership Forum in New York to give an update on
the airline group's direction this year.
Growth
As one of the world's largest airline groups, Lufthansa
intends to keep that distinction but "not with irresponsible growth,"
Birlenbach said. Within Europe, in particular, overcapacity
is an issue, so the group plans to reduce its growth there, she said.
Routes to the U.S. are "always an opportunity for
us," she said. This month, for example, Lufthansa began direct service
between Frankfurt and Austin, Texas. Further growth in the U.S. will be a mix
of new routes, increasing frequencies on existing routes and expansion of the
number of carriers within the group serving a destination, according to
Birlenbach.
Outside the U.S., China and India are the markets where the
group is most looking to expand. The group also is looking at more destinations
that serve primarily leisure travelers. "We used to focus more on just the
business traveler in the past, but we've added quite a few destinations for
pure leisure traffic," Birlenbach said. "We see a growth opportunity,
especially because the leisure traffic on a worldwide basis is growing twice as
fast as the corporate business right now."
That desire for more leisure business is also part of
Lufthansa's interest in acquiring Thomas Cook's carriers, particularly
its German airline, Condor. "Right now, there is so much going on in
Europe, and the Lufthansa Group is really pushing consolidation," she said.
"We like to take an active part in this consolidation process."
The group served 9.2 million passengers last year and plans
to increase that this year, Naeve said.
Distribution
Lufthansa Group has
been one of the leaders in shifting corporate travel to direct sales and
the New Distribution Capability from the traditional global distribution system
approach. "We have already taken several steps, ahead of the crowd, that
caused some turmoil in the last three years," Birlenbach said.
"Because we really took a step in that direction and now have alternative
channels for our customers, our direct channels are well established." The
group has been growing the number of agencies connecting through direct
channels; direct connections, including bookings through the group airlines'
websites, forms about 50 percent of its volume, she said. The group still feels
it is not where it would like to be and will continue to push forward on NDC
initiatives, Birlenbach said.
This week, the group became
the first airline to earn certification for the International Air Transport
Association's One Order initiative, which enables flight and ancillaries to be
integrated under a single booking reference number per trip.
Premium Products
Lufthansa will debut a new business class offering with more
space, as well as aisle access for every seat, when it begins flying new Boeing
777X aircraft next year, Birlenbach said. Once that happens, it will install
that new business class on its older aircraft, with the exception of those
scheduled to leave the fleet soon.
In the meantime, as more new aircraft enter the group's
long-haul fleet—in March, it approved a purchase of 20 Boeing 787-9 aircraft
and 20 Airbus A350-900 aircraft that will begin delivery in 2022—the group will
make decisions about how much space to dedicate to first class on aircraft. "Certainly,
there are destinations that definitely have first class demand, such as coming
to New York, but there are other destinations, like Canada, where there is no first
class and never has been because there is no demand," Birlenbach said.
"We cannot answer the question right now but will take a decision in the
next few months."
The group sees a growing demand for premium economy,
however, and plans to introduce a premium economy offering across all the
group's aircraft in the future, she said.
Technology
The Lufthansa
Group has introduced Facebook Messenger chatbots. Elisa for Lufthansa, Nelly
for Swiss and Maria for Austrian Airlines are named after the respective
carrier's first female flight attendant. The chatbots can answer simple service
questions and assist with rebooking when flights are delayed and canceled. The
group plans to add more services via the bots, such as showing where baggage is
and providing push notifications for delays and gate changes, and plans to make
them available through the airlines' apps and websites, as well as through other
messenger services like WhatsApp.
Birlenbach said voice is the next channel
opportunity for shopping and selling, and the group is looking into
collaborations. The group's biometric
boarding program continues to expand, as well, Naeve said.