European aviation giant Lufthansa Group is to further integrate its ¡°hub¡± airlines as part of a major reorganisation, which is designed to ¡°strengthen and expand their market position¡±.

The group, which owns Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines, said the plan will bring the carriers ¡°closer together and enable them to operate in an even more integrated manner in the future¡±.

This will include managing the airlines¡¯ short and medium-haul networks on a group-wide basis. The company has been centrally co-ordinating long-haul schedules in this way for 10 years.

¡°Guests who already use more than one group company for their travel will benefit from an even better co-ordinated range of services,¡± said Lufthansa in a statement. ¡°In addition, efficiency will increase and decisions can be made more quickly.¡±

Lufthansa Group emphasised that all its airlines will continue to be responsible for customer experience, including onboard product, catering, airport lounges in home markets and passenger services. They will also continue to manage their own flight operations.

The group added that the changes will mostly affect areas ¡°less visible to passengers¡± and pointed to its Miles and More loyalty platform and customer app, which have already been developed centrally.

As part of the reorganisation, the group¡¯s IT functions will be consolidated into a department headed by chief technology officer Grazia Vittadini, as the company plans to create a ¡°group-wide central digital expertise in the areas of operations, customer, commercial and corporate¡±.

Lufthansa Group said the target implementation date for these changes will be 1 January 2026.