Lufthansa Group
Careers at Lufthansa Group
Mission
Lufthansa’s mission is to become a leading name in the world of air travel by being the top preference of customers and shareholders all over the world. It aims to continue playing a significant role in shaping the global aviation market as it has been doing for the past decades.
History
Deutsche Luft Hansa served as the national airline of Germany from 1926 to 1945. In 1945, its services were suspended due to the end of Nazi rule. This created a void for a German flag carrier and this is where Lufthansa comes in.
Lufthansa’s reconstruction can be traced back to 6 January 1953, when a company by the name Aktiengesellschaft für Luftverkehrsbedarf (Luftag) was established in Cologne in a bid to have a new airline that will act as the German flag carrier. In 1953, although the airline had not been granted permission to become functional, yet Luftag ordered four Lockheed Constellation airplanes and four Convair aircrafts; and also set up an airport base in Hamburg. Furthermore, the company bought the name and trademark from the first Lufthansa, which had now been liquidated and named Deutsche Lufthansa Aktiengesellschaft (Deutsche Lufthansa Stock Company), on the 6th of August 1954 and thus began the hefty work of acquiring airplanes, training pilots and engineers, building an accomplished air staff and setting up the essentials for the maintenance of airplanes.
On 1 April 1955, Lufthansa got authorization to schedule domestic flights. On the same date, two Convair aircrafts took off from Munich and Hamburg. The approval for scheduling international flights was granted on 15 May 1955. Lufthansa acquired a Boeing B707 in 1960 and became part of the jet plane age.
In the following decades, Lufthansa witnessed a series of developments as well as setbacks. However, Lufthansa continued making advances for its customers. Near the end of 20th century, the Lufthansa Group underwent some radical changes. In an effort to transform Lufthansa into a leading name in the world of air travel, Lufthansa airline was privatized in 1997. Also, Lufthansa Systems GmbH, Lufthansa Cargo AG and Lufthansa Technik AG were made independent companies.
Today, with its numerous subsidiaries and companies functioning world-wide, Lufthansa is playing a pivotal role in shaping the global aviation market.
Business model of Lufthansa Group
Customer Segments
Lufthansa has a segmented business model. It targets, along with its subsidiaries, two groups: individuals and business groups.
To the individuals, it provides travel services and although it has customers with various social backgrounds, its focus is mainly on the business travelers.
For business groups, it provides cargo air services. However, Passenger transport is the core business segment of the Lufthansa Group and consequently, individuals are its focus customer segment. It provides air travel services to individuals in 18 domestic destinations and 193 international destinations.
Value Propositions
Lufthansa’s primary proposition values are technical competence, innovation, reliability as well as high standards of security.
From the very outset, Lufthansa has made efforts to remain technically competent in the global aviation market. Currently, its fleet size is 268 excluding the subsidiaries. The Lufthansa fleet comprises aircraft of almost every size. Throughout, state-of-the-art technology is used.
Lufthansa has always come up with innovative ideas for expanding itself and its customer base. For this purpose, it has a separate hub known as The Lufthansa Innovation Hub that scouts and builds startups as well as digital companies with strong products for travel to jointly co-create innovative offers.
For ensuring maximum security of its passengers and consequently gaining their reliance, Lufthansa has a separate unit - Lufthansa Technical Training (LTT). It is an independent global leading training provider for staff involved in the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) industry for aircraft, engines and aircraft components of civil aviation.
Channels
Lufthansa is one the first airlines which put an end to partnering and granting commissions to travel agencies and it also doesn’t employ affiliate programs for marketing so it does its marketing completely on its own. For this purpose, it employs the regular marketing tools such as TV, radio, and its website.
Lufthansa is one of the most social brands around and it is not for nothing. It employs the busiest social network platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and Pinterest to market itself. It updates its pages/profiles on these platforms on a daily basis.
Customer Relationships
Lufthansa’s customer relationship is primarily of automated services nature which means that the company recognizes individual customers and his/her preferences. It operates on Frequent Flyer Program “Miles & More”, a part of Star Alliance strategy. It is the largest traveler loyalty program of Europe with more than 25 million members.
This program provides benefits for several different frequent flyer levels and provides. Customers climb the status levels to become eligible for certain preferences. The destination countries of Miles & More are Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Poland, Croatia, Belgium, Serbia, Austria, Egypt, India, Malta, Slovenia and Kazakhstan.
Key Resources
Lufthansa’s main resources are its human resources, airplanes, hangars and computer networks.
However, the most important of all are the human resources and the airplanes. Being an international airline, it’s a necessity to bring in the best aircrafts with maximum fuel-efficiency and security.
As for human resources, high loyalty among employees is one of the differentiation factors claimed by Lufthansa itself.
Key Activities
Lufthansa’s key activities are fleet management, network management, ticket sales and customer loyalty management.
In fleet management, Lufthansa makes effort to reduce the risks connected to aircraft investment, productivity and efficiency, while minimizing its overall staff and transportation costs. The Lufthansa fleet comprises aircrafts of almost every size. Throughout, state-of-the-art technology is used. Currently, its fleet size is 268.
Lufthansa is a part of Star Alliance, and so it has a large network of domestic and international destinations. It operates services to 18 domestic destinations and 197 international destinations in 78 countries.
Lufthansa sells tickets to its customers through its official website and various flight-booking websites.
As for customer loyalty management, it has a Frequent Flyer Program “Miles & More” in place which offers various travel packages to its customers based on how often they travel.
Key Partnerships
Lufthansa is one of the significant members of Star Alliance - the world's largest global airline alliance comprising of 27 airlines and offering 21,900 flights on a daily basis to more than 1000 destinations in nearly 200 countries.
Being a significant member of such an alliance, it enjoys many benefits such as coordinating with numerous other airlines and thus shortening the overall journey time for passengers switching from one Star Alliance airline to another on connecting flights.
Furthermore, as a member of star Alliance, its costs are also reduced and it is able to harness synergies to further improve its customer services. Thus, its membership of Star Alliance provides it the opportunity to provide better services to its customers and, consequently, generate profits.
Cost Structure
Lufthansa’s cost structure is value driven as well as cost driven as it offers both the premium services for high-end customers and no-frill services for the low-end ones. It is affected by fluctuating fuel prices but it has a strong fuel hedging policy in place.
Revenue Streams
Lufthansa has a single revenue stream: it generates its revenue from the fare it charges its customers for the air services it provides to them. It charges its customers depending upon the ticket type, destination, services, membership status and other specifics.
