Lufthansa is pushing ahead with its digital transformation plan, codenamed ‘OPSession’, with the delivery of 20,000 iPad Mini’s to all its Cabin Crew. Like many airlines, Lufthansa and its subsidiaries, Swiss and Austrian, have issued tablet devices to pursers for some time but this latest rollout is far wider.
The airline has said that the iPad initiative is a mjor milestone in what its calling “a year of digitization”. Lufthansa started the project in 2015 when 4,300 pilots received tablet devices for flight planning and operations. The airline’s Cabin Crew Managers already use a tablet but Lufthansa has decided to go much further “as a result of the positive experience”.
The so called ‘Cabin Mobile Device’ (CMD) will be handed out to the airline’s entire workforce of Cabin Crew in the next few weeks. The tablets come loaded with a custom set of apps called ‘Lufthansa crewFlight’ – information available to crew will include Passenger Number Records (PNR’s), service manuals, schedules and last minute operational changes.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Lufthansa said of the devices: “The CMD heralds a new way of “paperless” working and simplifies existing processes so that staff have more time for customers. Moreover, it significantly improves communication with the personnel on board.”
It’s not just Lufthansa that is handing out mobile devices to all of it’s Cabin Crew. Gulf airline, Emirates recently completed the rollout of Meal Ordering Devices – the Samsung smartphones can be used to take meal orders and access individual customer information.
Emirates recently started using the devices on all flights across the airline’s route network. A spokesperson for Emirates confirmed that the MOD’s are only to be used in the Business Class cabin but declined to say whether a wider implementation would be made in the future.
“Providing our customers with the best onboard service has always been our top priority and we provide our cabin crew with the right tools, knowledge and information to do a world-class job.” said Terry Daly, Divisional Senior Vice President, Service Delivery at Emirates.
