Lufthansa claims its vision for a radically overhauled new distribution strategy for the group could be in place by 2019.
The airline is currently one year into what it says is a step-by-step approach to achieving "customer-interactive distribution".
The project was launched in June 2015, with the first and highly controversial phase to add a €16 surcharge to all bookings made via Global Distribution Systems introduced from September that year.
Speaking at the Aviation Festival in London last week, Johannes Walter, who recently became head of distribution and global market management after moving over from a senior sales role at group member Austrian Airlines, says this was the part where the group attained "distributive freedom".
Whilst there are still no official numbers on the performance of that particular strategy (decrease in segment volumes via GDS channels, impact on financial bottom-line of Lufthansa Group, etc), Walter says a number of key milestones have been achieved.
He claims 17 technology providers have connected to the direct-connect platform it created so that third parties could bypass the surcharge.
"Every major flight consolidator in Germany" has also secured a partnership with the airline using direct-connect, he adds, as well as 1,500 IATA-registered travel agencies worldwide.
In particular, recent months have seen two major German corporates — Siemens and Volkswagen — sign direct-connect agreements.
Walter says the first phase will continue into 2017, where it hopes to create "multiple distribution solutions", effectively trying to sideline the traditional model of selling tickets through the GDSs.
The next part of the programme will be to create a new revenue management platform with what it calls a "dynamic offering capability", a process by which it can tailor tickets and bundles of fares based on the push-pull principle.
The airline group will push relevant offers to third parties but also create fares based on requests from customers.
The "customer-interactive distribution" will only be obtainable after this last phase, at least by 2018 or 2019.
This, Walter says, is "fully flexible creation [of fares] in terms price and service characteristics - true shopping and customising".
When asked why other airlines or groups had not followed suit on the surcharge element of the Lufthansa strategy to achieve "distributive freedom", Walter claims it is "just a question a time".
NB:Lufthansa moon image via Pixabay.