LUFTHANSA

Lufthansa brings the inflight experience to life with mixed reality

Lufthansa used MR to showcase its new seating experience, cutting exhibition costs by up to 80% and making training more scalable.

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The Challenge

When Lufthansa launched Allegris, a new seating experience for long haul flights, in approximately 150 of its aircrafts, it needed a scalable way to promote the experience with partners around the world. Lufthansa also needed to train flight attendants and call center staff, so that they could better serve customers and upsell them to Lufthansa’s First and Business Class offerings.

The best way to understand Allegris is to experience it. Traditionally, this would have meant physically replicating the cabin at trade show exhibits, training staff on an actual aircraft when not in use, or on physical seat models. But this approach has its limitations.

High cost Building exhibits includes paying for parts, transportation, and labour costs, while grounding actual planes in order to train employees would mean missing out on vital revenue.

Low reach With physical exhibits, only people attending an event get to preview the experience. Also, it is simply too difficult to get every flight attendant or member of the call center staff into the new aircraft solely for training.

Although physical replicas were still important, Lufthansa needed to supplement them with a more scalable alternative.

About the company

The Lufthansa Group is a leading European aviation company with worldwide reach. It operates an extensive network of passenger airlines, including Lufthansa German Airlines, Eurowings, SWISS, Austrian Airlines, and Brussels Airlines.

Industry

Aviation

WHY META QUEST

Why Meta Quest?

Meta Quest Pro^* was the best fit to meet the project’s requirements. The display quality, combined with mixed reality pass through and hand tracking features made it Lufthansa’s first choice.

Dr. Björn Becker,
Head of Program,
Future Intercontinental Experience,
Lufthansa

“

Lufthansa Allegris tailors the travel experience to the needs of our customers. A personal experience can never be replaced. However, our Mixed Reality Showroom is a perfect way for our customers and employees to immersively understand the features and experiences that are delivered with the new product.

ISV FACT FILE

MSM.digital

Lufthansa chose MSM.digital for its 12+ years of experience and track record of delivering over 1,000 extended reality projects. Their concept capitalized on the MR capabilities of the recently released Meta Quest Pro^*, which allowed users to seamlessly interact with the digital twin of the new seats while staying connected to the real world.

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The Solution

Lufthansa partnered with Meta and MSM.digital to develop a mixed reality application that brings the Allegris experience to life, including in First and Business Class. When users put on their Meta Quest Pro^* headsets, they are virtually transported to a Business Class seat, where they can preview and interact with its amenities, like bringing up the dining tray with the click of a button, or opening and closing their private cabin, just like they would on an actual plane.

In true MR fashion, users can experience the app in passthrough ‘Seat’ mode, where they continue to see their physical surroundings while testing out the virtual seat. They can also click a button to switch to ‘Cabin’ mode, at which point they’re fully immersed in a 360^o view inside the plane, which makes it easy to explore the full range of seating options for that aircraft.

Now, in addition to shipping physical aeroplane seats to tradeshows, Lufthansa can make the experience scalable by sending out Meta Quest devices to its partners around the world, so they can easily experience and promote the new product at a fraction of the cost. Staff and crew can also try out new products, regardless of aircraft availability.

THE RESULT

Using Meta Quest Pro^* to showcase Allegris delivered:

Lufthansa is also using the app to inform and train its flight attendants. Moreover, the program’s success has prompted Lufthansa to expand its use of MR to train other parts of the business, like Critical Engine Maintenance, as well Customer Care and Service.

80%

cost reduction compared to physical exhibits only

10x

audience engagement