Lufthansa plans to cut ticket sales costs

Airline Industry Information, March 14, 2005

AIRLINE INDUSTRY INFORMATION-(C)1997-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

German airline Deutsche Lufthansa aims to cut the cost of selling tickets and is considering new fare models, said its sales and marketing head Thierry Antinori on Friday (11 March).

Lufthansa, which recently stopped paying commission to travel agents, plans to reduce its fees to ticket booking firms Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo and Worldspan. In 2003 the carrier paid the four Global Distribution Systems (GDS) companies EUR223m. The billing model has become too expensive and is no longer acceptable for the carrier, Antinori told Reuters.

The airline also wants to increase the amount of tickets it sells via the Internet to at least 15% in Germany and more than 10% worldwide this year, up from 12% and 8% respectively last year. The Internet service charges were lowered at the beginning of 2005.

In addition, Lufthansa is working on new fare models for its domestic and European short-haul networks, said Antinori.

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