Lufthansa Innovation Hub opens Singapore office and announces its first partnership in Asia

Together with over 100 guests from the Asian Travel & Mobility Tech ecosystem, international media representatives and top executives of the Lufthansa Group, the Lufthansa Innovation Hub (LIH) opened its first foreign office in Singapore on Monday, January 28, 2019.

The expansion of the Group’s digitalization and innovation unit, established in 2014, is a strategic response to the rapidly increasing importance of the Asian technology sector for the future of travel and mobility.

The focus of LIH Singapore will initially be on an in-depth exploration of specific market developments in the context of the digitalization of travel and mobility, as well as establishing a network of relevant tech players and the first strategic partners on site. The LIH Singapore office represents the first initiative of its kind by a Western airline on the Asian continent.

A first alliance with INSEAD, one of the world’s leading business schools, has already been launched and further collaborations with established players in the market are currently explored. LIH Singapore and INSEADhave concluded a research alliance on the topic, "The Future of Work" and its explicit relevance for the transformation of business travel. The research project is led by Trend & Market Intelligence specialists of LIH in Singapore and Berlin. The aim is to publish key findings in a whitepaper and to implement this into a test project that will be validated in conjunction with the Lufthansa Group.

The research findings obtained are to be immediately validated under real-world conditions. In this context, LIH is in discussion with WeWork, Singapore's Changi Airport (one of the most technologically-advanced airports in the world) and Munich Airport, which operates its Terminal 2 in cooperation with Lufthansa Group. 

"We look forward to utilizing the unparalleled dynamism of the Asian technology ecosystem even more consistently in the future and to leverage the established position of the Lufthansa Group. Singapore is clearly a pioneer of mobility innovation and our first collaboration with INSEAD and other players strongly attests to how eager established local players are to experiment and explore," explains Gleb Tritus, Managing Director of the Lufthansa Innovation Hub. 

The opening of an additional office in Shanghai, China is planned over the course of the year. The move to Asia, with a focus on new, digital business models, is part of the Lufthansa Group's digital strategy, which envisions a decisive expansion of digital activities along the entire travel and mobility chain, as well as building a sustainable network with leading technology players worldwide.

"More than ever, Asian startups, but also digital enterprises, are the driving force behind fundamental changes along the travel chain. With the expansion of the Lufthansa Innovation Hub, we want to become a serious part of this emerging ecosystem, just as we are in our home markets," said Dr. Christian Langer, VP Digital Strategy Lufthansa Group and Managing Director Lufthansa Innovation Hub.

The local team currently being established in Singapore is building on the close cooperation with the existing Asian-Pacific organization of the Lufthansa Group on site to benefit, in particular, from their local market expertise and existing networks.

About The Lufthansa Group
The Lufthansa Group is the world’s biggest airline group in in terms of revenue, and is also the market leader in Europe’s airline sector. The Group strives to be the “First Choice in Aviation” for its customers, employees, shareholders and partners. And safety, quality, reliability and innovation are the prime credentials and priorities of all its business activities.
The Lufthansa Group is divided into the three strategic areas of Hub Airlines, Point-to-Point Business and Service Companies. The Group’s network carriers, with their premium brands of Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines, serve its home market from their Frankfurt, Munich, Zurich and Vienna hubs. With its Eurowings brand, the Group also offers short- and long-haul point-to-point services in the growing private travel market. And with its service companies, which are all global market leaders in their individual industries, the Lufthansa Group has found success in further areas of the aviation business.
The Lufthansa Group’s airlines currently (Summer Schedule) serve 343 destinations in 103 countries on four continents and offer 15,415 weekly frequencies. The Group’s total fleet comprises some 728 aircraft and its member airlines will be taking delivery of 180 new aircraft between now and 2025. In 2017, the Lufthansa Group employed around 130,000 personnel, welcomed 130 million passengers aboard its flights and generated sales of around EUR 35.6 billion.
The Lufthansa Group is headed by its five-member Executive Board. Carsten Spohr is Chairman & CEO; Thorsten Dirks is in charge of Eurowings and aviation services; Harry Hohmeister bears responsibility for the commercial management of the Group’s hub airlines and airports; Ulrik Svensson is head of finance and IT; and Dr. Bettina Volkens is in charge of HR and legal affairs.