Lufthansa opens travel innovation centre in Singapore

Responding to growth in the Asian travel and mobility digitalization market, the Lufthansa Group opened a Lufthansa Innovation Hub (LIH) office Jan 28 in Singapore, its first outside Berlin. “Asia is far advanced and developed in these technologies compared to Europe, in areas like payment solutions, B2B servicing, etc.,” Lufthansa Group Airlines VP-sales Asia-Pacific Alain Chisari said. “By having a presence here, we hope to bring it into the Lufthansa Group.” Asia accounted for around 59% of the US$43.9b invested globally in the travel and mobility tech market in 2018, Lufthansa said. Half of the 34 travel tech “unicorns”—privately held start-ups valued at over $1b—are based in Asia. LIH is in discussions with Singapore’s Changi Airport and Munich Airport Terminal 2 as potential partners for the test projects. <br/>