Lufthansa, a European airline that has had mobile offerings for several years, has increased its mobile bookings by 50 percent after an overhaul of its mobile Web site.

After a redesign by Clanmo, Lufthansa also saw a higher usage of the mobile boarding pass feature. Mobile check-ins increased by 30 percent as well.

“Ever since launching our platform, mcommerce has been a vital part in our mobile strategy,” said Marcus Casey, director of global online sales and mobile services at Lufthansa, Cologne, Germany. “Many of our business customers use our mobile site to book their Lufthansa tickets.”

“There was a huge correlation between the redesigned mobile site and higher number of bookings,” he said.
 
Deutsche Lufthansa AG is the largest airline in Europe in terms of overall passengers carried. The airline is the world’s fifth-largest airline in terms of overall passengers carried, and it operates services to 18 domestic destinations and 183 international destinations in 78 countries.

Improving the experience
Lufthansa and Clanmo, a mobile interactive agency, previously partnered for the launch of the original Lufthansa mobile portal.

Lufthansa’s mobile Web site lets on-the-go customers check their arrival and departure information, check in and select a seat, receive a mobile boarding pass and make mobile reservations.

The reservations are offered in 12 languages.

Consumers can also check their flight plan on the mobile site.

In the redesign, Clanmo implemented Javascript and CSS for new browsing features, changed the layout design, added features specially for the iPhone and a layout optimized for touchscreen devices.

With the redesign, Joachim Bader, managing director at Clanmo, Munich, Germany, said that Lufthansa wanted to put a special focus on international frequent business-class flyers. Mr. Bader said these customers generally own higher-class phones and are considered early-adopters.

“Since the end of 2005, Lufthansa has offered its customers the opportunity, within the framework of its mobility strategy, to use their services via mobile phone, on mobile.lufthansa.com,” Mr. Bader said. “With this feature Lufthansa has cemented its role as pioneer within the field of mobile services, and has since been a driver of innovation in the aviation branch.

“The increasing relevance of mobile services gave rise to a complete redesign of the entire portal to adapt it for a new generation of browsers and end devices,” he said. “The defined goal of the relaunch was to achieve higher use of the service through new design, optimized usability and user experience – and consequently to reach a higher conversion rate of mobile reservations.”

Lufthansa said the smartphone optimized portal has improved usability tremendously and the booking flows have been enchanced with a new search and sort feature.

Mr. Bader said that since its redesign, Lufthansa’s mobile portal offers features that cannot be found on the mobile Web.

“The newest browser features are in a smart and savvy style like no other mobile site,” Mr. Bader said. “A strong and effective service has been created, which offers end customers even better support for the preparation and planning of their travels.”