With smartBooking, Lufthansa Cargo now offers a new digital interface (application programming interface, or API for short). It provides customers and partners with a binding offer that can be booked online immediately. It contains the available routings, capacities and prices and automatically executes all relevant checks. This means that the offer can be booked in real time and confirmed straightaway. With smartBooking, Lufthansa Cargo has completely digitalized the offer and booking process.
Aside from Lufthansa Cargo's direct customers, partners such as significantly growing cargo.one can also use the smartBooking API to make their platforms even more informative and customer-oriented with immediate access to available capacities and prices.
"We want to offer our customers seamless digital solutions. To achieve this, we connect digitally with our partners along the transport chain. SmartBooking is another major step in our digital transformation process. APIs will continue to gain in importance as an interface to our customers. We are delighted that as first platform our partner cargo.one is using smartBooking, making our services digitally available to many customers," said Peter Gerber, CEO of Lufthansa Cargo.
Oliver T. Neumann, Managing Director of cargo.one, adds: "We are delighted to see that cargo.one adds real value as a digital distribution channel by delivering significant booking volumes. Our aim is to deliver the best customer experience possible and to drive value and efficiency for the airfreight industry. Accordingly, we are excited to be the first Lufthansa Cargo partner to benefit from the new smartBooking API."
APIs are state of the art interfaces in a digital world and enable system-to-system communication. They allow networking both with booking platforms and directly with forwarders. Air cargo customers can access the cargo.one booking platform directly via the Internet. The API also enables Lufthansa Cargo data to be directly integrated into customers' systems.
Lufthansa Cargo joined forces with the digital booking platform cargo.one in July 2018. Now, about a year after launching, the platform is a rapidly growing third-party distribution channel next to Lufthansa Cargo’s own ebooking channel.
