Skip to content
Tiatra, LLCTiatra, LLC
Tiatra, LLC
Information Technology Solutions for Washington, DC Government Agencies
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Services
    • IT Engineering and Support
    • Software Development
    • Information Assurance and Testing
    • Project and Program Management
  • Clients & Partners
  • Careers
  • News
  • Contact
 
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Services
    • IT Engineering and Support
    • Software Development
    • Information Assurance and Testing
    • Project and Program Management
  • Clients & Partners
  • Careers
  • News
  • Contact

Lufthansa’s digital future takes flight with ‘Digital Hangar’

In June, the Lufthansa Group’s Digital Hangar touched down in Barcelona. A new business unit, which also has hubs in Brussels, Frankfurt, Gdansk, Vienna, and Zurich, Digital Hangar was founded in September 2022 with the aim to create the world’s best-connected travel experience, incorporating both in-person and digital services.

Each Hangar houses agile coaches, business analysts, data and analytics specialists, product owners, Scrum masters, software engineers, and user interface designers — all with one mission: to elevate the airlines’ digital customer experience before, during, and after the flight. 

Christian Spannbauer, CTO for the Digital Hangar, spoke with CIO.com from Barcelona about the impact of this new initiative for the official flag carrier airline of Germany, which, as a founding member of the Star Alliance network, has become a truly global airline.

“We place the customer in the center of our thinking, and we organize ourselves along the customer journey, which is different to being organized by sales or operations business lines,” says Spannbauer about the impact of this new initiative and its talent. “It’s also about agile ways of working, and the need to be empowered.”

The Hangars are developing the next generation of reservation processes, information services, personalization, and self-service tools for the Cologne-headquartered airline, which also operates Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Eurowings, and Swiss International Air Lines, among others.

Banking on product-based IT

To develop the next generation of customer services, Lufthansa’s Digital Hangar has adopted new business operating models popular among organization’s pursuing digital transformation, Spannbauer says.

“This means we acknowledge that digital is a cross-functional effort, rather than operating in silos of technology and business,” he says, adding that the Hangar is also moving to a product-centric model, “as we believe that digital services require a product management approach to get really outstanding results, rather than ramping up a project and setting its mission, and then ramping it down again.”

This is the most significant difference of the Hangar hubs, he continues, when compared to the traditional technology team within an airline. “Those product teams need to be self-sufficient, and that means they need to be empowered to entirely develop and run a digital product.”

As with so many major change programs taking place in business at present, the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic was the trigger. “It really became apparent there was something lacking in our landscape,” he says. The volatility of the travel market, the inability to know how long the pandemic would last, and pressure from travellers made Lufthansa Group realize that existing customer experience methods needed to modernize.

“We started our digital journey three years ago, with the harmonization of our booking platform, but during the Corona crisis, it became clear that booking is not the only digital service that we should offer our customers,” Spannbauer says.

As a result, the Digital Hangar has seven value streams: inspiration, search, and booking; ancillary services; personalization, profile, and loyalty; payment; travel experience; customer servicing; and a B2B-focused value stream. Discussing these, Spannbauer says: “I believe the customer will choose us due to their experience along the entire travel journey with us, and we have to do a lot more than we do today. Experience is not only the cherry on the cake.”

And speaking about flying in an era of no-frills budget airlines and finding new digital means to win over customers and remain competitive, he adds that the flight is not a commodity experience. “We believe digital experience is connected to the physical experience travelers have with our colleagues onboard, and this leads to an overall experience for our customers, so we can’t disconnect the physical, the human, and the digital,” he says, elaborating that organizations that get digital right will win customer loyalty because digital has the power to simplify the lives of busy travellers.

“The complexity in all areas of life is increasing, so we’re all looking for convenience,” he says. “If you’re worried about baggage, if there are proactive services, that’s very much about experience.”

And getting digital right, Spannbauer says, requires digital services to be developed by cross-functional teams that own the product, not simply write a spec and send it down to IT.

“We don’t need to convince our business partners to collaborate,” he says. “We manage our teams according to outcomes rather than just shipping features.”

The Digital Hangar also has a different operating model from previous digital teams at Lufthansa Group. “We follow a test, measure, and learn system to see what’s creating value for our customers,” he adds. “Test, measure, and learn comes with responsibility, so it has a lot to do with a healthy failure culture and leadership.”

Barcelona proves a perfect fit

Lufthansa Group is joining a host of major business peers in powering up a digital hub in Barcelona, including fast-moving consumer goods makers Danone and Unilever, tech firm Dynatrace, and Roche in pharmaceuticals. Spannbauer and Lufthansa Group were attracted to Barcelona for many of the same reasons as their peers.

“The environment is very promising as it offers a very diverse open community, with access to tech innovation and startups,” he says, adding that the Barcelona center, which is operated by partner Quantion, will complement the other hubs in the Digital Hangar network. “The operating model of the Digital Hangars is transparent to the location; there is the same operating model in all places, and we do not differentiate.”

Barcelona is garnering a reputation across the technological world for its focus, skills, and government support for businesses looking to increase the pace of digitization.

“From the beginning, the government was helpful in the process and offered us a lot of support and help with offices, meeting the community, integrating us into the networks,” he says. “I hadn’t received such behavior beforehand, and it has flattened the learning curve for us. Many different cultures and communities come together here, and I feel that eases the collaboration, and this is the perfect fit to our target and our culture.”

The Digital Hangar has, of course, begun to work with generative AI, too, with the first iteration being used for the Lufthansa Group staff portal. Spannbauer says they started with a publicly available foundation model before enriching it with their own large language model.

“If you base your ChatGPT usage on publicly available models, then it is only a matter of time before someone offers the same service,” the CTO says. “We believe the differentiator is your own data.”

The Digital Hangar also provides Lufthansa Group and its airlines with its own software company. So what does this mean for major vendors, in particular Amadeus, the global tech giant of the travel sector?

“In the backend, there are still core IT services being provided by our partners, but it’s a different role,” Spannbauer says. “I believe the more we do with digital, the more our partners will benefit and contribute with their systems and infrastructure because as we increase our technology surface, there is a lot of room for our partners to maneuver.” 

Artificial Intelligence, Data Management, Digital Transformation, IT Leadership, IT Training , Travel and Hospitality Industry
Read More from This Article: Lufthansa’s digital future takes flight with ‘Digital Hangar’
Source: News

Category: NewsOctober 27, 2023
Tags: art

Post navigation

PreviousPrevious post:Why adaptability is the new digital transformationNextNext post:16 best entry-level IT certifications to launch your career

Related posts

Barb Wixom and MIT CISR on managing data like a product
May 30, 2025
Avery Dennison takes culture-first approach to AI transformation
May 30, 2025
The agentic AI assist Stanford University cancer care staff needed
May 30, 2025
Los desafíos de la era de la ‘IA en todas partes’, a fondo en Data & AI Summit 2025
May 30, 2025
“AI 비서가 팀 단위로 지원하는 효과”···퍼플렉시티, AI 프로젝트 10분 완성 도구 ‘랩스’ 출시
May 30, 2025
“ROI는 어디에?” AI 도입을 재고하게 만드는 실패 사례
May 30, 2025
Recent Posts
  • Barb Wixom and MIT CISR on managing data like a product
  • Avery Dennison takes culture-first approach to AI transformation
  • The agentic AI assist Stanford University cancer care staff needed
  • Los desafíos de la era de la ‘IA en todas partes’, a fondo en Data & AI Summit 2025
  • “AI 비서가 팀 단위로 지원하는 효과”···퍼플렉시티, AI 프로젝트 10분 완성 도구 ‘랩스’ 출시
Recent Comments
    Archives
    • May 2025
    • April 2025
    • March 2025
    • February 2025
    • January 2025
    • December 2024
    • November 2024
    • October 2024
    • September 2024
    • August 2024
    • July 2024
    • June 2024
    • May 2024
    • April 2024
    • March 2024
    • February 2024
    • January 2024
    • December 2023
    • November 2023
    • October 2023
    • September 2023
    • August 2023
    • July 2023
    • June 2023
    • May 2023
    • April 2023
    • March 2023
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • December 2021
    • November 2021
    • October 2021
    • September 2021
    • August 2021
    • July 2021
    • June 2021
    • May 2021
    • April 2021
    • March 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • December 2020
    • November 2020
    • October 2020
    • September 2020
    • August 2020
    • July 2020
    • June 2020
    • May 2020
    • April 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • July 2019
    • June 2019
    • May 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • April 2018
    • March 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • December 2017
    • November 2017
    • October 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • July 2017
    • June 2017
    • May 2017
    • April 2017
    • March 2017
    • February 2017
    • January 2017
    Categories
    • News
    Meta
    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org
    Tiatra LLC.

    Tiatra, LLC, based in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, proudly serves federal government agencies, organizations that work with the government and other commercial businesses and organizations. Tiatra specializes in a broad range of information technology (IT) development and management services incorporating solid engineering, attention to client needs, and meeting or exceeding any security parameters required. Our small yet innovative company is structured with a full complement of the necessary technical experts, working with hands-on management, to provide a high level of service and competitive pricing for your systems and engineering requirements.

    Find us on:

    FacebookTwitterLinkedin

    Submitclear

    Tiatra, LLC
    Copyright 2016. All rights reserved.