News
Airlines Face Up to Lufthansa Systems’ IT Platform
- By Jon William Toigo, Enterprise Systems
- September 6, 2005
Three airlines have bought into FACE (Future Airline Core Environment), a
passenger and reservation platform from Lufthansa Systems, a systems integrator
and wholly-owned subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group.
FACE supports all traditional core processes of passenger airlines—from reservations,
inventory, ticketing and departure control to passenger services.
According to systems integrator, FACE saves money for carriers by making them
more independent of global reservation and distribution systems. The core functions
of are based on the AirCore system from Unisys. Both companies recently signed
a technology partnership agreement.
“If FACE were a car, then the body and design would be from Lufthansa
Systems, [and] the engine would come from Unisys,” says Wolfgang F.W.
Gohde, CEO of Lufthansa Systems. Core functions such as reservation/inventory,
check-in and ticketing are based on modules from the AirCore product suite newly
developed by Unisys. According to Gohde, one of the central tasks of the partnership
will be to develop the existing modules in synch with market requirements.
Lufthansa Systems has already won three airlines from different regions as
FACE customers: Garuda Indonesia, bmi (formerly British Midland) and Qatar Airways.
For Qatar Airways, Lufthansa Systems will equip all 66 stations of the Doha-based
carrier with its Departure Control System for passenger and baggage handling.
At the same time, the airline will also implement Lufthansa Systems’ Baggage
Reconciliation System. The contract also includes electronic ticketing and interlining,
software for self-service check-in terminals and global network communication
services for Qatar Airways’s operations at all of the airports served
by the airline.