In business as in life, long-term relationships are to be cherished. They can only succeed when both parties’ goals and values are aligned, where both are prepared to put the time in, to find out where the true common ground lies and upon which a mutually rewarding future can be built. Long-term relationships also need to balance loyalty to each other while accepting that some needs can be met elsewhere without damaging the trust.
Lufthansa City Center (LCC) is the world’s largest travel agency franchise network with around 500 offices in more than 85 countries. In 2019, it turned over nearly €5.4billion ($6.3billion). In 2021, the business is celebrating its thirtieth anniversary, and Amadeus, which has been its selected partner since Day One and is an honoured guest at the (virtual)party.
Within the international entity LCCI, the members focus on individual, tailor-made travel products for leisure and corporate customers. Amadeus gives them access to global inventory and allowing each franchisee interconnections with its preferred travel suppliers. Ever since the first Amadeus international agency outside Germany was connected in Tallinn, Estonia, members have been able to curate Amadeus’ global inventory (flights, hotels, ferries, rail, insurance, activities) to satisfy the exact needs of their local market while also having autonomy to consider other suppliers to fill any gaps.
During the past thirty years, LCCI has benefitted from Amadeus’ commitment to technology, but also its commitment to collaboration and innovation. Amadeus has and always will work with our customers to ensure the products we offer are the products needed – recently we extended our Amadeus Hotel content, giving LCC member access to net rates which can be marked up and sold standalone or as part of a package (with fulfilment streamlined through the same mid and back office as their usual workflows).
There are three main reasons why the partnership with LCCI has stood the test of time and why LCCI remains one of Amadeus’ strongest success stories.
1. Growing over time
When Amadeus became LCCI’s natural partner for a global expansion in 1991, the world was a very different place. In the pre-Internet era, the GDSs were, give or take, the only way for travel agents to access inventory to sell, while suppliers also had limited ways to get their inventory in front of travelers.
The GDSs of the time were using the best technology available, even if that was mainframes, dial-up and cryptic commands. But with a long-term commitment to best-in-class innovation, Amadeus’ customers and partners have always had access to market-leading solutions based on cutting edge technology.
LCCI members with access to Amadeus-scale inventory and technology are able to concentrate on selling travel rather than buying servers. The benefits of our own move to the cloud are already filtering through to our customers including LCCI - quicker response times, improved stability, quicker time to market for innovations. Elsewhere, our long-term strategic partnership with Microsoft Cloud means that our customers will benefit now and in the future from the combined efforts of two of the world’s technology giants.
However, because we have worked closely with LCCI over thirty years, we also know what LCCI members need from us, and can flex our development roadmap accordingly. In this case, a shared history is supporting a new future.
2. Growing with technology
The ecosystem powering LCCI has led to the network becoming the largest travel agency franchise network in the world. Amadeus is LCCI’s preferred GDS supplier and one of the most important providers within an ecosystem of inventory, payment and fulfilment partners who also work with LCCI.
Our technical ability to integrate with other suppliers is pivotal for LCCI members to access the range of content their customers’ demand. We have the scale relationships in place to ensure that global airlines and hotel chains will always be on our system and available to our customers and travelers.
Amadeus Value Hotels (AVH), for example, is helping LCCI members to start recovering some of the revenues lost as a result of lockdowns and travel restrictions. Many users of AVH are now selling inventory for domestic travel in a cost-effective and profitable way. For LCCI members used to selling international trips, the ability to pivot to domestic allows them to re-engage with existing clients and find new ones.
Moreover, with an established presence in more than 85 countries, Amadeus understands that its global technology stack also needs to succeed at the local level. Our teams in the market understand the specific needs - technical, content, regulatory - of every market where there is an LCCI operation.
3. Growing with knowledge
Relationships which have lasted thirty years inevitably come under internal and external pressure at some stage. How that pressure is handled is a sign of how robust the relationship is at the time and indicative of whether it has a future. The relationship between LCCI and Amadeus has survived the major global headwinds of the past thirty years – the dotcom doom and bust, 9/11, Lehman Brothers and the following financial collapse – as well as the market or region-specific issues such as ash clouds and extreme weathers, SARS, MERS and swine flu, political upheaval.
Covid-19 is the mother of all external headwinds. During the pandemic, Amadeus’ technology and knowledge sharing virtual platforms were able to help LCCI individual members steer their way through the cancellations, disruptions and revenue shortfalls. We also engaged with LCCI headquarters on a corporate level to help the organization keep costs in check, share examples of best practice and prepare for the recovery.
Thirty years of working together meant that we could anticipate the potential pain points on a corporate and member-by-member basis. But as well as understanding the specific requirements of LCCI, we believe our experience converts to allow us to work with other agency network groups and franchise organizations around the globe. Amadeus’ experience of providing the technology for networks gives us another layer of understanding into the bigger-picture needs of this user group.
Martina Groenegres, Managing Director, LCCI said, “At LCCI we value long term relationships and we are happy that our partnership with Amadeus is still going strong. We rely on Amadeus for their technology, innovation and network of customers. We look forward to the next 30 years!”
LCCI is one of Amadeus’ most important long-term relationships, but it is not the only one. We understand that maintaining these relationships takes effort, and we are super-alert to any conversations or contacts which reek of complacency.
Our success in helping LCCI to expand to become the world’s biggest franchise network proves that long-term business relationships are key to success. Congratulations for making it 30 years despite all the challenges
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