Above & Beyond: Designing the Future Business Travel Experience with Lufthansa Innovation Hub

The final Above and Beyond talk for 2020 covered a topic that usually plays a critical role in business meetings— air travel. While many industries have been hard hit by the pandemic, there’s no denying that the aviation industry has been one of the hardest hit. With a vaccine on the horizon and already being rolled out in some countries, many of us are turning our thoughts to when and how we will return back to “normal,” how hard hit industries will recover, and what conducting business will look like post-pandemic.

With so many unanswered questions about the future of travel, we were lucky enough to have the Head of Strategic Design at Lufthansa Innovation Hub (LIH), Tino Klähne, as our speaker. LIH “explores new digital business models with a mission to “create and capture value beyond flying.” They build ventures in the travel & mobility tech space that focus on traveler life cycles instead of passenger experiences — a shift that is redefining our notion of what it means to travel. Examples include TMNT, a data-driven trip, and mobility trend platform, and Compensaid, a Sustainable Aviation Fuel option for consumers wishing to offset their individual carbon footprint caused by their trips.

While Tino’s insight into the aviation industry had all Abovers — who surely had encountered one or two canceled flights in the last year — buzzing with curiosity, none were more curious than our business development team. Up until this year, travel was a significant component of their work, from trips between our studios in Stockholm, Malmö, San Francisco, and Shenzhen to meeting with clients across the globe. What would business travel look like for them in the coming years? Would there even be such a thing as “business trips” anymore?

With the holidays around the corner, our final Above and Beyond talk for 2020 covered a topic that usually plays a critical role in meeting up with friends and family around this time of year — air travel. While many industries have been hard hit by the pandemic, there’s no denying that the aviation industry has been one of the hardest hit. With a vaccine on the horizon and already being rolled out in some countries, many of us are turning our thoughts to when and how we will return back to “normal,” how hard hit industries will recover, and what conducting business will look like post-pandemic.

With so many unanswered questions about the future of travel, we were lucky enough to have the Head of Strategic Design at Lufthansa Innovation Hub (LIH), Tino Klähne, as our speaker. LIH “explores new digital business models with a mission to “create and capture value beyond flying.” They build ventures in the travel & mobility tech space that focus on traveler life cycles instead of passenger experiences — a shift that is redefining our notion of what it means to travel. Examples include TMNT, a data-driven trip, and mobility trend platform, and Compensaid, a Sustainable Aviation Fuel option for consumers wishing to offset their individual carbon footprint caused by their trips.

While Tino’s insight into the aviation industry had all Abovers — who surely had encountered one or two canceled flights in the last year — buzzing with curiosity, none were more curious than our business development team. Up until this year, travel was a significant component of their work, from trips between our studios in Stockholm, Malmö, San Francisco, and Shenzhen to meeting with clients across the globe. What would business travel look like for them in the coming years? Would there even be such a thing as “business trips” anymore?

Above & Beyond is an online discussion that takes place internally at Above Agency. It is where we bring together some of the world’s most curious minds to inspire, motivate, and jump-start ideas that will improve life- and ultimately, drive positive change. We create short reports of takeaways & learning from the talks and share them externally, hoping to inspire others. Happen to be or know of an industry challenger or disruptor we can spar with at an upcoming Above & Beyond talk? Drop us a line here: hello@above.se