How Lufthansa Group scaled modern airline retailing with Accelya

About Lufthansa Group

Lufthansa Group is one of the world’s leading aviation groups and the leading airline group in Europe. Its airline portfolio spans multiple brands, markets and hubs, creating a complex distribution environment in which scale, consistency and flexibility are critical.

With network airlines including Lufthansa Airlines, SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines, alongside other airline brands across the Group, Lufthansa Group serves customers across an extensive European and intercontinental network.

This scale makes its modern retailing transformation particularly significant, requiring new distribution and retailing capabilities to work consistently across airline brands, markets, travel sellers and servicing environments.

From NDC implementation to modern retailing at scale

For Lufthansa Group, introducing NDC was only the beginning. The greater opportunity was to scale modern retailing across airline brands, geographic markets, travel sellers and servicing workflows while ensuring that the transformation delivered real commercial value.

This required more than replacing one distribution connection with another. Lufthansa Group needed greater control over offer creation, pricing and distribution, together with the capability to deliver richer content and more relevant propositions through the indirect channel.

Creating differentiated and more relevant offers

Through NDC, Lufthansa Group has introduced propositions including Premium Economy Light, Business Light, Economy Basic, Economy Light and the SelectSAF ancillary.

Combined with continuous pricing, these propositions allow the airline group to better match offers to customer demand. Instead of distributing the same product through a new connection, Lufthansa Group can use NDC to create distinct retail opportunities and strengthen control over its commercial proposition.

This gives Lufthansa Group greater flexibility in how products are designed, priced and distributed, while providing travel sellers and customers with richer content and greater choice.

Measuring success through commercial outcomes

Lufthansa Group measures the success of NDC through the commercial results it creates.

Differentiated content, continuous pricing and a growing ecosystem of connected travel sellers are helping the airline group improve customer choice and strengthen indirect-channel performance.

The results are measurable: ancillary attachment through NDC is three times higher, while 50% of Lufthansa Group’s indirect bookings now flow through NDC.

Accelerating adoption across the travel seller ecosystem

Lufthansa Group’s work with Despegar shows what can be achieved when an airline, travel seller and technology partner align behind a clear retailing proposition.

Despegar went live in four months and achieved 70% NDC adoption within two months, demonstrating how modern airline retailing can move rapidly from implementation into scaled production.

The adoption rate also reinforces a broader point: when richer content and more relevant offers create genuine value for sellers and travelers, NDC can become operational infrastructure rather than a standalone distribution initiative.

“For us, NDC is not just another connection. It gives us access to richer content and more relevant offers, helping us improve the experience we deliver to travelers across the region.”

Supporting transformation with an open, modular foundation

Accelya provides the open, modular technology foundation supporting Lufthansa Group’s retailing transformation.

By enabling scalable seller connectivity, onboarding, servicing and operational adoption, Accelya helps move NDC beyond a distribution initiative and into a core retailing capability.

The platform supports the reliability and scale required across multiple airlines, brands, channels and markets, while giving Lufthansa Group the flexibility to evolve its retailing strategy over time.

This connects Lufthansa Group’s retailing ambition with operational execution, helping ensure that innovation translates into measurable business outcomes.

From experimentation to critical infrastructure

For Lufthansa Group, NDC is becoming a critical part of its retailing infrastructure.

It enables differentiated offers, stronger ancillary performance, faster seller adoption and greater control over the customer experience. The story demonstrates how modern airline retailing is progressing from future ambition to measurable commercial value today.