The Lufthansa City Center (LCC) network is aiming to grow its portfolio
\nof international business travel members in 2026 and has identified a number of
\nmarkets in which it wishes to establish \u2013 or strengthen \u2013 its presence.<\/p>\n
Business travel expansion is one of several strategic Following a \u201ctargeted \u201cLufthansa In Europe, it is pursuing new travel management company members in Spain, Portugal and Poland, LCC is looking to add mid-sized agencies that are not Brix believes India offers a \u201cmassive opportunity\u201d for LCC, which comprises around 600 travel agencies THE GROWTH JOURNEY<\/p>\n Its acceleration has been driven by both organic growth and In total, it added 35 new agencies last year, five of which The group \u201cThe German SME customers need personal service and the new platform TMCs are now learning that<\/p>\n While Brix But pointing Brix said Orth added: \u201cSMEs ADAPTING TO CHANGE<\/p>\n Brix said \u201cThat is driven by a few Some agencies remain reluctant to adopt NDC, he added, but \u201cwe explain LCC\u2019s franchise Similarly, These include Around 500 The \u201cAI is an enormous challenge and an incredible opportunity.
\npillars for the organisation in the year ahead as outlined by Lufthansa City Center
\nInternational\u2019s managing director Heiko Brix \u2013 who joined the organisation last year<\/a> \u2013 at the network\u2019s 21st
\ngeneral assembly taking place in Malta this weekend.<\/p>\n
\nexpansion\u201d of its global supplier portfolio and DMC membership in recent years,
\nits next steps include \u201ccontrolled growth in core markets,\u201d expanding its
\nglobal partner network and fostering a new generation of entrepreneurial
\nbusinesses.<\/p>\n
\nCity Center is more than just a travel agency chain \u2013 it is a vibrant,
\nentrepreneurial network with a global spirit and local backbone,\u201d said Brix.<\/p>\n
\nwhile in Asia-Pacific the organisation is targeting growth in India, South Korea, China,
\nIndonesia and Australia.<\/p>\n
\nalready aligned to a local network and are \u201cinnovative, ambitious and aiming
\nfor growth,\u201d explained Brix. \u201cOur corporate travel [membership] is already strong
\nbut we need to bring in further competencies for the international network.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nexpansion and also views Poland, with one of Europe\u2019s fastest-growing
\neconomies, as a market in which LCC International needs to expand, despite already counting
\neTravel<\/a> \u2013 \u201cthe strongest BSP producer in Poland\u201d \u2013 among its members.<\/p>\n
\nand destination management companies across 110 countries, reported combined
\nturnover of \u20ac7.6 billion in 2024, up significantly from \u20ac5.98 billion in 2023.<\/p>\n
\nthe addition of several new partners including Gant Travel in the US last year,
\nwhich alone added around \u20ac1 billion in turnover, and this year, the addition of
\nBeyond Business Travel in Northern Ireland and Vermari in Brazil.<\/p>\n
\nwere granted LCC\u2019s business travel license, taking its international corporate
\ntravel network to 55 members globally, in addition to 60 travel management
\ncompanies in Germany.<\/p>\n
\nhas seen only \u201cmoderate\u201d growth in 2025, with year-to-date revenue flat and
\nbooking volumes down slightly, but Brix believes LCC\u2019s SME customers tend to shake
\noff the impact of geopolitical tensions and economic challenges more easily
\nthan their larger counterparts.<\/p>\n
\nSME market in particular\u2026 those companies are more resilient than some major
\ncorporations. Larger companies are often hit harder and sooner, but it depends
\non the segment, of course,\u201d said Brix, highlighting the impact of US tariffs on
\nGermany\u2019s automotive sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nand LCC\u2019s managing director in Germany, Markus Orth, view American Express Global
\nBusiness Travel\u2019s acquisition of CWT<\/a> as an \u201cadvantage\u201d for LCC and its members,
\nthe organisation\u2019s tech-first competitors \u201care getting stronger,\u201d said Orth. Nevertheless,
\nLCC is the third largest travel management organisation in Germany, behind only
\nAmex GBT and BCD Travel, he noted.<\/p>\n
\nto the likes of Navan, Perk (previously known as TravelPerk<\/a>) and Lanes & Planes, which is ranked the ninth largest TMC in Germany<\/a>, Orth said: \u201cThey were parked during Covid when you needed [personal]
\nservice but now they are strong competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nthat although its members had lost some business to such competitors, two-thirds
\nreturn to LCC because \u201cthey miss the service component \u2013 that\u2019s where we win;
\nwe are so strong on service.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nneed service and the new platforms are now learning that. It\u2019s especially [the
\ncase] when you have NDC content [to manage post-booking] and when there\u2019s disruption
\n\u2013 that\u2019s the moment of truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nthat 19.8 per cent of the LCC network’s bookings for Lufthansa are now made through NDC
\nchannels \u2013 some 9 per cent more than the industry average. Among its German
\nmembers, that figure stands at 30 per cent.<\/p>\n
\nvery strong partners\u00a0\u2013 some
\nare on 80 or even 90 per cent \u2013 but we are currently spreading those best practices into the rest of the international LCC world to
\nshow how it can be done and how that share can be increased,\u201d said Brix.<\/p>\n
\nthat content is going to be taken away from the GDS [EDIFACT] channels, so they need to move over.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nmembers in Germany can access NDC content via its BridgeIT platform, while
\ninternational members now have access to a range of aggregators including
\nTravelfusion and TPConnects.<\/p>\n
\nwhile the network\u2019s members in Germany largely use a unified mid-office and
\ntech suite and benefit from centralised purchasing and marketing, LCC
\nInternational has partnered with a range of tech and service providers in 2025 to offer choice to its members.<\/p>\n
\ntech stack provider TripStax, booking platform Thomalex, out-of-hours service
\nprovider All7, unused ticket tracker Travel Metrics, and spend management
\nspecialist Neylux. \u201cWe\u2019re working with known names that create value for our
\npartners,\u201d said Brix.<\/p>\n
\ndelegates from 78 countries attended LCC\u2019s general assembly in Malta where conference
\ncontent was delivered across three streams: the geopolitical environment, next
\ngeneration travellers, and the deployment of artificial intelligence \u2013 the
\nlatter two subjects also forming part of LCC\u2019s development strategy in 2026.<\/p>\n
\norganisation has rolled out a number of internal AI initiatives in 2025, said
\nBrix, while its members are sharing their own experiences with peers. \u201cSome of our
\nlarger agencies are showing others how to get the best from it,\u201d said Brix,
\npointing to the automation of simple tasks and the scanning and processing of
\nemails. <\/p>\n
\nLet\u2019s embrace it. The only way forward is to make is to make the most of it and
\nclaim a competitive advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lufthansa City Center (LCC) network is aiming to grow its portfolio of international business travel members in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,466,30387],"class_list":{"0":"post-557448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-interviews","12":"tag-travel-management"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115514679400571266","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}