Latvian airline opts for IT solutions in flight planning
airBaltic and Lufthansa Systems have signed a five-year contract for the IT provider's flight planning solution Lido OC. The market-leading flight planning solution uses a number of parameters to calculate the optimal route for each flight, which leads to fuel savings of up to five percent. The implementation of the new system will be completed in thefirst quarter of 2010.
"We selected Lido OC because this powerful flight planning system will support the rapid growth of airBaltic. A benchmark showed that Lido OC will considerably increase the efficiency and operational flexibility of our flight planning and reduce costs at the same time. We expect to see a return of investment within one year.
Quality of services and attractive ticket prices are priorities of airBaltic. We are delighted that our passengers will benefit because the system contributes to improved punctuality and better ticket prices ", said Pauls Calitis, Senior Vice President Flight Operations at airBaltic.
With its modern technology and user-friendly architecture, Lido OC covers all aspects of flight planning. The system provides dispatchers with a host of optimization options regarding flight time, fuel consumption or costs of each flight. airBaltic will also use Traffic Flow Restrictions (TFR) and Lido Briefing, both add-ons of Lido OC. While TFR achieves fuel savings by taking the highly complex issue of temporarily restricted airways into account, Lido Briefing enables flight crews to access briefing materials over the Internet.
airBaltic has been cooperating with Lufthansa Systems since 2006. The airline uses NetLine products for scheduling, crew management and operations control and optimizes its revenue management with ProfitLine from Lufthansa Systems.
"We are proud that airBaltic has decided to expand our long-standing cooperation. By using our IT solutions in several business areas, airBaltic will benefit from an even higher degree of integration, more efficient processes and cost-savings," said Stefan Auerbach, Senior Vice President Sales EMEA at Lufthansa Systems.
airBaltic operates direct flights out of Riga, Latvia and Vilnius, Lithuania, as well as direct flights between Kaliningrad and Copenhagen. With a fleet of 31 aircraft, the airline flies to 60 destinations in Europe, Asia and the Middle East. In 2008, airBaltic carried almost 2.7 million passengers.