Just over a couple of weeks after Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) revealed it was introducing a global travel embedded subscriber identity module (eSIM) service in collaboration with eSIM Go to provide passengers with “convenient and affordable” mobile data connectivity on their travels, its parent Lufthansa Group (LHG) has announced plans to provide eSIM mobile data services to passengers across four of its airlines.
LHG believes it has successfully proven the business case for eSIM with a positive launch at SWISS and is now committed to replicating the model for Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines. Each is enabled by eSIM Go’s fully managed Powered by Breeze solution to make it easy for travellers to stay connected in more than 150 countries worldwide while avoiding expensive data roaming charges.
The Lufthansa Group is an aviation group with operations worldwide. It has 96,677 employees and generated revenue of €35.44bn in its financial year 2023.
The Lufthansa Group comprises the Passenger Airlines and Aviation Services segments. The Passenger Airlines segment includes network airlines Lufthansa Airlines, SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines. As part of the multi-hub strategy, it offers passengers a range of flights from global hubs in Frankfurt, Munich and Zurich, as well as national hubs in Vienna and Brussels.
“This partnership with eSIM Go will give seamless and hassle-free access to mobile data plans to many more customers in 2024, providing them with a more affordable alternative to traditional data roaming,” said Johann-Philipp Bruns, vice-president of ancillary, partner and retail at Lufthansa Group. “Whether travelling for business or leisure, staying connected is an increasingly important part of the travel experience for our customers.”
The products offered by eSIM Go are designed to enable brands, communications service providers and innovators to plug mobile connectivity products and services into existing digital channels to deliver new value, improve customer experience and reduce churn, while creating more routes to market and more user touchpoints for the mobile industry.
As the hottest category in airline ancillaries for years, branded travel eSIMs are a great opportunity to increase customer value Bill McKimm, eSIM Go
The technology is used by global brands in travel, mobile, fintech and other industries to generate revenue and increase customer loyalty through high-quality eSIM data bundles. They are designed to enable business partners to embed eSIM capabilities into their products via application programming interfaces, co-brand a fully managed eSIM service or pursue an affiliate route.
The eSIM Powered by Breeze service allows passengers to stay connected in over 150 countries, offering data package bundles across more than 245 global mobile networks without worrying about expensive data roaming fees. The service is available on a selection of phones under five years old from manufacturers such as Apple, Google, Samsung, Huawei and Oppo. It uses eSIM Go’s digital mobile ecosystem to provide travellers with a range of data bundle options based on 1,000 Tier 1 mobile networks worldwide, including 250 5G networks.
eSIM Go regards the new deal as reinforcing the company’s position in the aviation industry, growing the total addressable market for its travel eSIM solutions by another 100 million passengers a year. The provider already has established partnerships in place with airlines including Wizz Air and Icelandair, as well as airports such as Sydney Airport and Fraport Group, incorporating Frankfurt.
Commenting on the deal, eSIM Go’s vice-president of travel, Bill McKimm, said: “We’re excited to be partnering with Lufthansa Group and playing a key role in their strategy to champion the end-to-end passenger travel experience. As the hottest category in airline ancillaries for years, branded travel eSIMs are a great opportunity to increase customer value in revenue, but also in terms of added loyalty and the platform they create for other core and ancillary services.”
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