The FINANCIAL — Lufthansa’s new traffic control center at Frankfurt Airport – otherwise known as the Integrated Operations Control Center (IOCC) – has now been operational for one month.
The new IOCC was officially opened by German Chancellor Angela Merkel on 16 November. Operations and Hub Control staff are now working together from one room in the IOCC for all Lufthansa Group flights to, from and through Frankfurt. “I’m very pleased that all the traffic and passenger control experts will be together under the same roof. With the most up-to-date technology, it’s possible to react to operational changes quickly and to direct Lufthansa’s global operations in the most efficient way possible,” says Klaus Froese, responsible for Frankfurt Hub and Operations, according to Lufthansa.
The former Operations Control Center (OCC) and the Hub Control Center (HCC) have been merged in the same space of the new traffic control center. The main task of the OCC is to direct Lufthansa German Airlines’ worldwide flight operations from and into Frankfurt, where about 200 aircraft are based. In 2014, at its home hub alone, Lufthansa recorded around 38 million passengers, 74 per cent of whom were making connecting flights. The HCC is responsible for ensuring the smooth movement of large numbers of passengers at the Frankfurt hub as well as for the supervision and scheduling of the aircraft ground handling. It also looks after Lufthansa passengers in the case of any problems.
The building of the IOCC is a significant building block of the Lufthansa project known as “Future Ops Control”, which is intended to optimize internal processes, IT and the management of Lufthansa’s operations. As well as the OCC and HCC, the most important interface partners, both within and outside the Group, such as Fraport, Lufthansa Technik, LSG Sky Chefs and Lufthansa LEOS will also be represented in the new IOCC.
At Lufthansa’s Munich hub, all operational departments work together in a central unit. The Hub Operations Center (HOC) was set up there three years ago. The close collaboration with Munich Airport, in particular the joint operation of Terminal 2, as well as the integration into the HOC of other airport partners, makes fast reaction times possible, and it increases reliability for passengers who fly via Munich.
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