Lufthansa Group and the Lufthansa Innovation Hub have entered into a research alliance with travel booking app Hopper to explore the potential of artificial intelligence (AI). This marks Lufthansa’s third technology-related investment within a year, following investments in the startups Fleet Logistics and cargo.one.
By leveraging powerful machine learning and AI, Hopper’s proprietary technology accurately predicts flight and hotel prices and offers its users personalised recommendations at the optimal booking time, as well as alternative travel offers.
The multi-million dollar project will see the two companies establishing a long-term collaboration regarding predictive analytics models and flight-demand forecasting. In addition, the project will utilise AI to learn customers’ preferences on a much deeper level in order to provide personalised recommendations about additional services or upgrades.
Christian Langer, Vice President Digital Strategy, Lufthansa Group, said: “Hopper operates one of the world’s most successful flight booking apps and has developed a unique AI-based technology. With this research alliance, the Lufthansa Group is further expanding its expertise in this area. This will enable us to provide our customers with even better data-driven, tailor-made offers in the future. This is one of the central goals of our digital strategy for this year.”
Frederic Lalonde, CEO of Canada-based Hopper, commented: “We are thrilled to have Lufthansa Group and Lufthansa Innovation Hub as partners in research as we further our expansion into Europe. The combination of local market knowledge and dedication to exploring the upper bounds of AI makes this an ideal partnership for Hopper as we double down on our efforts to bring the best in travel booking to a global audience.”
