Avianca relies on planning tools from Lufthansa Systems

Lufthansa Systems today announced that the Latin American airline Avianca, part of Avianca Holdings, has opted to use its NetLine/Ops and NetLine/Crew planning solutions on its operator based in Colombia. The two IT solutions are perfectly integrated with each other so that airlines can optimize their operations control and crew management processes. A five-year contract to this effect was signed recently. Avianca already uses this technology successfully on other operators based in El Salvador, Peru, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Honduras, that are part of the same holding company.

The NetLine/Ops operations control solution monitors current operations and enables airlines to improve their operating control processes. NetLine/Ops offers real-time, complete cost information so that airlines can quickly make cost-efficient operating decisions in the event of disruptions due to bad weather or missed slots, for example.

NetLine/Crew greatly simplifies the crew planning process by generating fast, cost-efficient and fair duty rosters. Its functions cover crew pairing, rostering and tracking as well as evaluation and documentation. NetLine/Crew generates rosters for pilots and flight attendants which take all legal and contractual regulations into account while also ensuring that available personnel is assigned in a way that makes the most economic sense.

Lufthansa Systems operates both applications in its data centers following an ASP (Application Service Provider) model. The IT service provider also ensures that the programs are integrated into its customer’s existing IT architecture and third party applications via ISB (Integrated Service Bus). Since both NetLine products access the same database, any change in one program is automatically synced to the other program in real time. This interaction is especially useful for a company like Avianca Holdings because the NetLine solutions give all integrated airlines the ability to use each other’s crews, aircraft and slots. At the same time, each airline can plan their own flights and crews in isolation.

This optimizes and harmonizes business processes throughout the holding company while also ensuring the optimal use of resources – in terms of aircraft as well as ground, maintenance and on-board personnel.

After the successful implementation of NetLine/Ops and NetLine/Crew, Avianca in Colombia will have the option of also installing the NetLine/Crew Preferences xOpt, which optimizes the crew roster, route and other preferences for the purposes of crew management while taking legal requirements into account.

“The perfect interplay between the two applications and their native, flexible integration are what ultimately convinced us. Particularly in a holding company like ours. The ability to manage several AOCs in a cross-airline interaction model is very important,” said Fernando Lara, Information Technology Vice President at Avianca.

“We are delighted that Avianca has opted to use our NetLine solutions for its operator in Columbia as well. It shows that they are convinced of our expertise and the performance of our IT solutions and expands our longstanding successfull cooperation,” said Stefan Auerbach, Executive Vice President Airline Solutions at Lufthansa Systems. “This will further strengthen our position in the Latin American market.”