Lufthansa Backs Open Innovation and Allows sale of Tickets Through Third-party Digital Channels

Everyone who has ever planned a trip to a concert has experienced the following situation: you buy a concert ticket online – and then the search for suitable flights, trains or hotels continues on other websites. That could now be a thing of the past. Because online event agents that want to spare their clients unnecessary effort will now be able to offer suitable Lufthansa flights directly from their websites or apps in combination with the event tickets.

This is made possible by the Lufthansa Open API (API = Application Programming Interface), through which the Lufthansa Group makes standardized data available to developers in a controlled manner. As the year begins, the Lufthansa Innovation Hub and the IT team of Lufthansa around CIO Dr. Roland Schütz are setting a milestone: Lufthansa is opening the Open API for direct ticket sales. From now on, developers anywhere – including Kenya – will be able to use the interface to integrate direct booking links for offers from Lufthansa, Eurowings and Austrian Airlines into their web- and app-based offers.

They will be able to increase the appeal of their services by incorporating Lufthansa products and will also receive compensation for the prominent display of Lufthansa products on their websites whenever the API integration generates bookings on lufthansa.com.

With Open API, the Lufthansa Group is implementing a strategy of open innovation with the purpose of securing access to untapped online marketplaces and expanding ticket sales in future. Lufthansa is the first airline to upgrade the Open API to a fully-fledged sales channel.

Heike Birlenbach, Senior Vice President Sales Lufthansa Hub Airlines and Chief Commercial Officer Hub Frankfurt, describes the strategy as follows: “With the introduction of the ability to book via the Lufthansa Open API, we are taking the increasing importance of digital sales platforms into account. More than ever before, today’s travellers expect a user experience from their preferred apps and websites that is as simple as possible. The opportunity to seamlessly integrate booking for flights with Lufthansa, Eurowings and Austrian Airlines through the Open API adds an additional channel to the sales and distribution portfolio of the Lufthansa Group. In the end, the customers, the platform providers and the Lufthansa Group will all benefit equally.”