About Lufthansa Consulting worldwide

Lufthansa Consulting has once again been awarded the coveted consultancy prize "Best of Consulting" by the renowned German weekly business news magazine WirtschaftsWoche.

Managing Director Hannes Müller, Partner Catrin Drawer, Managing Consultant and Project Manager Sascha Vogel as well as Marlene Hollwurtel from Marketing and Communications proudly accepted the award for the third place in the category "Strategy” at the award ceremony on 30 November 2023 in Düsseldorf.

The prize was awarded to a successful project with TAAG Angola Airlines, the national carrier of Angola. Lufthansa Consulting supported TAAG in developing an ambitious, realistic, data‑profound and financially proven Business Blueprint formed by a 5 Year Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan aims to enable TAAG becoming a sustainably successful business entity and an airline of choice for passenger and cargo services connecting Southern Africa with the world. The Plan includes a new strategy, an optimized network and fleet plan, commercial and operational concepts as well as an organizational re-design and financial model.

Both companies worked closely together to identify optimization opportunities and jointly developed future-facing business concepts for the airline. Lufthansa Consulting supported TAAG’s executive management with advice through a change management and communication concept to execute the Strategic Plan and foster transformation within the organization.

Today, the efforts and actions of TAAG Angola Airlines’ management board have generated relevant outcomes, such as positive financial results, new regional and international routes and a sustainable fleet acquisition plan in progress towards a vision to position the company as a reference in Africa. 

TAAG Angola Airlines’ CEO commented: “TAAG Angola Airlines congratulates Lufthansa Consulting for being awarded the “Best of Consulting” prize by WirtschaftsWoche. Working closely with Lufthansa Consulting on our 5 Year Strategic Plan program was indeed valuable for our growth and compliance with best practices, Lufthansa Consulting has greatly assisted our airline in successfully achieving major milestones and resources to address our challenges ahead”, says Eduardo Fairen.

Above all, the strategic importance of this project for TAAG and also for the country should be emphasized. It makes an important contribution to the macroeconomic development of Angola’s trade and transport sector: introduction of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), opening of air travel through the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM) as an African Union Agenda 2063 flagship project and opening of the New International Airport Luanda as hub in South-Western Africa and home base to the national carrier TAAG.

Lufthansa Consulting and its client TAAG Angola Airlines are incredibly pleased about the award and that the WirtschaftsWoche jury could also be convinced of this successful project. Both look very much forward to their further productive and prosperous cooperation.

The aviation experts from Lufthansa Consulting have been awarded by WirschaftsWoche already for the third time: In 2018 with the 1st place in the category “Competitive Strategy”, in 2019 with the “Excellent” price in the category "Marketing & Organization" and this year with the 3rd place in the category “Strategy”.

GAD ist the largest and most senior gathering of global public and private airport directors, operators, investors, financiers and industry experts.

GAD World is where the airport operator and investor community network, share expertise and learn from the market leaders. Given the current inflationary environment, airport operators, strategic and financial investors are signing up to tap into global expertise on managing costs and ROI in airports.

Ilias Maragkakis, Associate Partner and Head of the Solution Group Infrastructure & Operations, will moderate the panel discussion on Day One focussing on "The brave new world of infrastructure investment" which will address the topics

• - What are the dynamics of infrastructure investing in the 2020s? How are rising costs and risks impacting the performance of different sectors?
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• - How competitive are airports as an asset class in today’s market and regulatory landscape?
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• - Viewing airports through an ESG lens and perspective of creating shareholder value
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• - What are the expectations of the future pipeline and transaction models?
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Meet our delegates Ilias Maragkakis and Malte Schillmann to discuss solutions for airport investors and operators. Don’t miss this opportunity to take the market temperature and find out about upcoming projects. 

Lufthansa Consulting is once again sponsoring this prestigious event. 

GAD Website

On 20 March, Lufthansa Consulting once again conducted a guest lecture at Cranfield University. In continuation of an annual tradition, the aviation experts have been invited to deliver their "Introduction to Network and Fleet Planning" to Masters students of Cranfield University's M.Sc. course in Air Transport Management.

The lecture covered numerous topics of high relevance to the students. Our Associate Partner Arvind Chandrasekhar, Senior Consultant Wasiq Khurshid and Consultant Ainesh Advani discussed with the students how network planning works within an airline organization, about data sources, passenger demand forecasting, route economics and the steps that go into developing a business case for a route. In addition, the class brought the topic to life through a detailed case study for a new intercontinental route between Asia-Pacific and Europe. With some excellent, probing questions from the class and a robust exchange of ideas, everybody thoroughly enjoyed the session.

“We greatly value our longstanding relationship with Cranfield University and thank Professor Gary Doy for inviting us to speak to his class. It’s always a pleasure to engage with future leaders of our industry,” said Arvind Chandrasekhar after the lecture session.

The postgraduate university has world-class expertise in its sector-leading specialist areas, particularly also in the field of aviation.

Lufthansa Consulting’s tourism specialists are back at ITB Berlin! From 7 – 9 March 2023, Senior Consultant Esther Samtlebe and Associate Consultant Mirko Kopf look forward to meet the travel industry community to discuss the current state of the business, measures for further recovery and growth opportunities.

ITB is the world´s biggest travel show and convention. It´s finally back as an in-person-event, hosting the leaders of the global travel industry, showcasing decisive trends and providing unlimited opportunities for the travel business. For more than 50 years the name ITB has stood worldwide for industry knowledge 365 days a year, networking and trendsetting events, whether in a virtual, in-person or hybrid format.

During the event, the aviation consultants will present their range of services, in particular their tourism strategy solutions for tourism stakeholders. Our experts will explain how to turn challenges into opportunities for a sustainable regrowth to the benefit of the entire tourism ecosystem of a destination in a post-COVID world.

Of course, they will also talk about further consulting services such as their comprehensive suite of network planning services for airlines or about Lufthansa Consulting’s robust Air Service Development product for airports.

Looking forward to a lively exchange with you in Berlin! Feel free to contact our expert team via the ITBxplore app!

Link to ITBxplore​​​​​​​

EASA (European Union Aviation Safety Agency) just recently released their 2022 report on the review of standard passenger weights. The authority issues and evaluates safety regulations within civil aviation in Europe and periodically conducts research, where the average weight of passengers and their baggage is important. Already in 2008, EASA collected the standard weight of passengers in a study. The goal was to determine the passenger weight, the weight of carry-on baggage and that of checked baggage on domestic, international, and intercontinental flights, in order to update the set of standard masses for the purpose of aircraft mass and balance. The update now will also help assessing if a review of the applicable EU legislation is needed.

Since fluctuations in the values were to be expected, EASA in 2021 commissioned Lufthansa Consulting to conduct a field survey to obtain up-to-date data. Over a period of 10 months, data was collected at six European airports: ATH (Athens, Eleftherios Venizelos, Greece), BRU (Brussels, Belgium), CPH (Copenhagen-Kastrup, Denmark), MXP (Milan Malpensa, Italy), MUC (Munich, Franz Josef Strauß, Germany) and SOF (Sofia, Bulgaria).  A total of 4,164 passengers were surveyed, as well as their baggage and 1,998,070 pieces of checked baggage. In order to collect as accurate data as possible, the survey was conducted in the winter season and the summer season. In its PMO role, Lufthansa Consulting contracted I&O Research who were responsible for the in-person fieldwork activity. The subsequent statistical analysis was performed by SEO Amsterdam Economics.

According to the survey’s findings there was little difference in passenger weight from 2008/09. An average male passenger in 2022 weighs 82.5kg and a female passenger 67.5kg. Furthermore, it has been found that male passengers have more carry-on luggage. If we compare the weight of checked baggage from the previous study with today's results of averaged 16kg, it is clear that the weight of checked baggage decreased by 0,8kg. It was also observed that business class passengers carry more baggage on long-haul flights than other passengers.

> To the EASA report