Sichuan Airlines optimizes network planning with IT from Lufthansa Systems

Lufthansa Systems today announced that Chinese carrier Sichuan Airlines will use its NetLine/Plan and NetLine/Sched IT solutions for short-term and long-term network management. The two companies recently signed a ten-year agreement to this effect.

With the modern technology and user-friendly architecture of NetLine/Plan, Sichuan Airlines will be able to generate optimal flight plans customized to current market demands. The system simulates new connections and creates forecasts for passenger flows, costs and revenues, enabling the airline to identify the strengths and weaknesses of its network and act accordingly. The airline can also generate additional demand by offering optimized transfer connections and codeshare flights. By using NetLine/Plan, Sichuan Airlines can increase its passenger load factor and achieve higher revenues.

Thanks to its high degree of automation, the NetLine/Sched schedule management solution will support Sichuan Airlines in optimizing its processes. The system also helps planners evaluate “what-if” scenarios and gauge their cost-effectiveness. Furthermore, the solution provides high-quality optimization tools to improve the quality of flight schedules from an operational and commercial perspective.

“We are very excited about optimizing our route network and flight scheduling with the proven IT solutions from Lufthansa Systems. With NetLine/Plan and NetLine/Sched we can increase our profitability and reduce our operating costs,” said Mr. Song Shibin, Information Center General Manager at Sichuan Airlines.

“An optimized route network is a decisive competitive factor for an airline. We are delighted that Sichuan Airlines has opted for NetLine/Plan and NetLine/Sched so that we can support them with our IT solutions in the future,” said Olivier Krüger, SVP Regional Management Asia Pacific at Lufthansa Systems.

Sichuan Airlines is a Chinese airline based in Chengdu. It has a fleet of 73 aircraft and serves 78 destinations in China and several foreign countries such as Canada, USA, Australia, Korea, Thailand, Maldives, Indonesia and Vietnam.