Lufthansa Partners With SAP To Announce A Global Blockchain Challenge For The Aviation Industry

The Lufthansa Innovation Hub (LIH) and the SAP.iO Berlin Foundry worked in a joint effort to launch the first ever Blockchain Challenge for the Aviation industry.

As they announced in a blog, the challenge seeks to explore opportunities and drive adoption of blockchain technology in the airline industry. As the announcement outlined, the application of blockchain technology in finance is currently dwarfing what is obtainable in both the Travel and Mobility Tech scene.

To change this, this challenge will attract the most talented blockchain entrepreneurs from all over the world, inviting them to an environment where they can create ideas and experiment with new ways of doing things.

Lufthansa’s sizeable R&d ecosystem and industry experience, paired with SAP’s extensive blockchain development experience and mentorship will see this challenge being one of the most promising blockchain challenges – putting it in front of decision makers and giving their business great publicity.

As Thorsten Dirks, the CEO of Eurowings and Lufthansa Group board member stated:

“Blockchain is one of the game-changing technologies of our time, which we are systematically addressing as part of our digital strategy for the Lufthansa Group. We look forward to discussing innovative solutions and initiating experiments together with our partner SAP at the Aviation Blockchain Challenge. By combining our aviation industry expertise with the Blockchain technology of a world market leader, we are creating the ideal worldwide framework for addressing Blockchain entrepreneurs with an affinity for travel and mobility”

Deepak Krishnamurthy, the Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President at SAP also praised the partnership, saying that it is a part of “a new innovation ecosystem that can potentially transform the entire travel industry.”

Right now, the best way to understand the Blockchain Aviation Challenge is as a challenge that is divided into three categories:

• the Airline Challenge
• the Traveler Challenge and
• the Supplier Challenge

Each of these challenges will promote different solutions for different aspects of the industry – travelers, suppliers, and airlines. The prizes for the selected entries will include:

• A Global stage for your idea incl. international press coverage and media awareness
• Potential pilot project with Lufthansa Group
• Professional mentoring for all shortlisted teams
• Possibility to pitch in front of senior management
• Coverage of travel expenses (up to 2500€ per team)
• Finalists can get access to Blockchain-as-a-Service from SAP in order to build or improve their MVP
• Office space for up to 3 months in the Berlin ecosystem
• LIH and SAP take zero equity

If you wish to enter, you can do that by visiting the official link of the challenge – here.