Tech

Lufthansa taps Google's cloud tech to mitigate the impact of flight delays

Key Points
  • The German airline group will use Google Cloud to bring its IT systems and data into one unified platform.
  • The platform will make suggestions for putting Lufthansa's flight plan back on track when disruption occurs.
  • A Google team will be onsite with Lufthansa's IT and operations experts to develop and test the new platform.
A Boeing 747-8 Lufthansa airplane takes off from the Airport Tegel in Berlin.
Britta Pedersen | AFP | Getty Images

Lufthansa is partnering with Google's cloud unit in an effort to minimize the impact of flight delays and other irregularities on its passengers.

The German airline group will use Google Cloud's infrastructure to bring its disparate IT systems and data on processes like aircraft replacement and crew scheduling into one unified platform.

The aim is to optimize Lufthansa's operations, especially during flight disruptions caused by extreme weather or congestion. The company's staff will use an operations platform powered by Google's cloud tech to come up with suggestions for putting its flight plan back on track.

A team of Google software engineers will be onsite with Lufthansa's IT and operations experts develop and test the firm's new platform.

"By combining Google Cloud's technology with Lufthansa Group's operational expertise, we are driving the digitization of our operation even further," said Detlef Kayser, an executive board member at Lufthansa. "This will enable us to identify possible flight irregularities even earlier and implement countermeasures at an early stage."

Over 145 million passengers flew with the German aviation giant last year, a record number for the company. But it also faced industrial action from cabin crew and other staff, resulting in hundreds of flight cancellations.

Google Cloud's Thomas Kurian on the future of cloud and Google
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Google Cloud's Thomas Kurian on the future of cloud and Google

Google Cloud's CEO, Thomas Kurian, said the partnership would provide the two companies with a "significant opportunity to revolutionize the future of airline operations."

The U.S. tech giant has been investing heavily in Europe. It unveiled plans for an investment of 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) aimed at expanding its data centers across the region and says its cloud business is now growing faster in Europe than any other region.

Cloud computing, where things like data storage and processing are made available over the internet, has become a major battleground for some of the world's largest tech companies — especially Amazon and Microsoft, whose cloud services now dominate the market.

Explaining its decision to go with Google, rather than Amazon or Microsoft, a Lufthansa spokesperson said it was down to "their high technical expertise and their databases with very good data quality."