Lufthansa Group has the best innovation teams in Germany

• The business magazine Capital and the strategy consultancy Infront Consulting selected the winners with a multi-stage evaluation process 
• Lufthansa Innovation Hub clinched first place for the third time
• Award recognizes Eurowings Digital’s innovations along the travel chain

Lufthansa Group has been awarded the “Best Digital Lab Award 2020” twice. The award was presented to Lufthansa Innovation Hub and Eurowings Digital by Capital and Infront Consulting. The honor is based on a study that examined 50 digitization units of established companies in German-speaking countries. The study is the largest of its kind and has been published annually since 2017. It is the third time that Lufthansa Innovation Hub has taken first place.

“Digital innovations are critical for the continued development and long-term success of the Lufthansa Group. We are delighted that two of our teams have won first place. This is a great appreciation and acknowledgement of their work”, says Thorsten Dirks, Member of the Executive Board for Digital and Finance. “The ability to develop digital solutions to challenges and to be adaptable is more valuable than ever today. Both companies are not only making a significant contribution to the digital future of the entire Lufthansa Group, but are also actively involved in shaping the business transformation of our company.”

This year, the main focus of the review was on the scalability of each unit’s innovations. Projects were examined in this context that are both related to and outside of the core business of the Group companies. Take, for example, the “Compensaid” service developed by Lufthansa Innovation Hub. Travelers use a digital platform to calculate the amount of CO₂ resulting from their trip and can then compensate it with sustainable aviation fuel. 

The award for Eurowings Digital specifically recognizes the development of smart services that enable the digital subsidiary to accompany passengers through all phases of their journey and to provide a kind of "digital companion" With these solutions, Eurowings Digital is driving the expansion of a travel platform around the Eurowings’ core business, allowing for a simple, convenient and affordable travel experience from a single source. The latest Eurowings Digital products include the Eurowings customer app and the Eurowings flight guide, a digital travel assistant.

About the study

The study “Corporations on the Track of Start-ups 2020” identified the best digital innovation labs in German-speaking countries. It was conducted by the strategy and management consultancy Infront Consulting & Management in cooperation with the business magazine Capital in the first half of 2020. Nearly 50 units participated in the study, which was published in 2020 for the fourth year in a row. Previous studies can be found at: https://www.infront-consulting.com/publikationen/#archiv

Lufthansa Innovation Hub

The Lufthansa Innovation Hub (LIH) is the digital business spearhead of the Lufthansa Group and links the world’s largest aviation group with the relevant key players in the global Travel & Mobility Tech ecosystem. In this role, the activities of the LIH include the initiation of strategic partnerships between the Lufthansa Group airlines and relevant digital companies, the in-house development of digital ventures as well as strategic investments in relevant Travel & Mobility Tech startups. Their activities always have a strict focus on the needs of travellers across the whole travel cycle as well as close collaboration with serial entrepreneurs, investors, and existing tech players. The LIH is based in Berlin and operates offices in Singapore and Shanghai.

About Eurowings Digital

Eurowings Digital GmbH was founded in 2018 as part of Eurowings Aviation GmbH, a wholly owned Lufthansa subsidiary. The company, which combines all of the airline’s customer-relevant digital activities and is responsible for over one billion euros in sales, is based in the heart of Cologne’s start-up campus. Eurowings Digital’s strategy is simple. Beyond the flight itself, Eurowings Digital wants to offer its customers the complete travel experience from a single source: the inspiration to travel, the ride to the airport, hotel accommodation, an event at the travel destination – and much more. Eurowings Digital is increasingly becoming a digital travel companion for its customers, providing them with a comprehensive digital product range and services at every step in their travel chain. Eurowings Digital has been enthusiastically received right from the start. The company continues to look for digital experts to contribute to the transformation process to the smart, digital travel platform of eurowings.com and significantly increase Eurowings’ digital footprint in the airline industry.