Challenges of the Aviation Industry in Summer 2022 and the Implications on Revenue Management

The terrorist attack of 11th September 2001 and the economic crisis of 2008 led to a collapse in global air traffic. Not to be compared are the dimensions since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 in Europe. The lifting of many travel restrictions such as negative testing for COVID-19 in 2022 paved the way for the recovery of air traffic and the desire to travel awakened in many. Private travellers in particular created an unexpectedly high demand for air travel for which the entire industry was not prepared. However, long-term stored aircraft, lack of ground and cockpit staff and the shift in demand regarding Economy Class, Premium Economy Class and Business Class travel led to new problems in 2022. Due to the area of responsibility of the revenue management department in Munich, the cuts caused by this new disruption could be observed continuously. The central task of the department is to achieve the highest possible revenue with the available capacity of the aircraft. Due to the shift in demand towards seats in premium compartments (Premium Economy Class, Business Class), refitting the cabins of the long-haul fleet is a more topical issue than ever. In addition, staff shortage continues in the industry, which has led to commercial cuts in 2022 such as the suspension of overbooking of flights. Evaluating the right data and building appropriate visualisations of it is the central part of the work to illustrate the impact on Lufthansa and the revenue management department through the challenging summer 2022.