New Perspectives: Aviation and Beyond

Leader in aviation informatics, Lufthansa Systems opens new chapter in strategic partnership and looks beyond hard-hit traditional markets to thrive.

Airlines had to quickly adapt to new demand behavior and change their steering processes along with their IT solutions, following the adverse effects of the pandemic. There was a sudden need of urgent repatriation flights and rapidly growing demand in the cargo business. Lufthansa Systems, one of the leading global aviation IT providers, responded swiftly and supplied many airlines with adjustments in their flight planning, flight operations, and commercial solutions. This rapid reshuffling of activities kept Lufthansa Systems Hungária, the parent company’s 450-strong technology and delivery center in Hungary, very busy in this turbulent period. Their efforts to ensure business continuity for all airline customers became a common purpose, expressed by the motto, “we are in this together, and we will get out of this together”.

Business as (un)usual in the New Normal
The company adjusted to changes and prepared itself for the post-COVID operating environment, called the New Normal. Lufthansa Systems Hungária had to change its working methods, which, considering that remote work and home office were already part of their day-today operation, went smoothly. They continued to provide services aiming to produce added value in terms of enhanced efficiency, reduced costs or increased profits for airline companies.
While the company took advantage of its agile and flexible approach to make required changes, Lufthansa Systems Hungária decided to go ahead and open its new Szeged office in SE Hungary in March of last year, setting its ambitious growth targets even higher. Local staff was expanded by 50 % in 2020, to be boosted further this year. “With our deep industry knowledge coupled with the sharp IT skills, our people have given us an edge even in these very difficult times. In the end, not only did we manage to keep all our employees, but we increased our headcount by the end of 2020,” Michael Herrmann (see photo), Managing Director of Lufthansa Systems Hungária pointed out.

From university to the labor market
Innovation and the influx of new talent is crucial for every technology company. Lufthansa Systems Hungária continues its complex, project-based learning and integration initiative for fresh graduates including soft skill improvement in addition to professional trainings. One of the key goals of the IT Young Professionals Program is to provide a transition from the university to the labor market, where participants can acquire not only the necessary practical knowledge but also the agile business model of the company. After completing the two-month training period, participants have the opportunity to get involved in live projects and start their career at the firm.

Flexibility 4.0
Common values create an extensive domain of collaborative opportunities with existing business partners. The Austro-Hungarian software company Capture GmbH has experience with a wide range of BroadCom products and ServiceNow applications and has been providing highly skilled IT experts for Lufthansa Systems Hungária for over ten years. Now a tighter strategic cooperation is in the focus, based on the existing customer relationship network of Capture and the extensive expertise and development capacities at Lufthansa Systems Hungária. The primary goal of the collaboration is outsourced software development and application operation in the DACH region, which both partners are familiar with.
“We’ve worked with Capture for about a decade now. They have the network, the salesforce, the business acumen and the expertise to make this happen, and we have the scalable development and operations capability – the perfect symbiosis,” Michael Herrmann said.
According to Gábor Oláh, founder & CEO of Capture GmbH, "our long-time partnership with Lufthansa Systems has proved that we have seamless cooperation between our teams, and our journey now takes a new direction with the search of new business opportunities jointly".
As Michael Herrmann concluded, “this is a kind of market opening which enables us to serve customers outside of aviation. At the same time, Capture can expand its IT development capacities with our help.“