Airlines Face Up to Lufthansa Systems’ IT Platform -- ADTmag

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.