Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has announced an agreement with aviation IT specialist Lufthansa Systems which will see the airline use the industry-leading flight planning solution Lido/Flight.

The contract with Lufthansa Systems, which also includes a number of Lido/Flight add-ons and benefits, will see the Abu Dhabi-based airline optimise its operations by significantly reducing its fuel costs and emissions, whilst also benefiting from more efficient flight planning processes.

Drawing on its own powerful database, Lido/Flight uses a number of parameters to calculate the optimal route for each flight, which can lead to cost savings of up to five per cent.

Richard Hill, Etihad Airways’ chief operations officer, said: “Etihad Airways is one of the world’s fastest-growing commercial airlines. The addition of these new planning systems provides the modern technology and tools we need to manage our future growth more proactively and effectively.

“As we continue to grow our network, the Lido/Flight system will help us achieve significant cost savings as well as enhance the airline’s operational flexibility. This is a powerful solution which is capable of much more than just providing route planning and monitoring of flights. With valuable functions running in the background, we will be able to operate our flights using the best possible routings and with minimum emissions.”

The contract with Lufthansa Systems includes a number of additional add-ons to Lido/Flight, including Traffic Flow Restrictions (TFR), Inflight Monitor (IFM) and FreeFlight.

TFR achieves fuel savings by factoring in the impact of temporarily restricted airways, while the IFM system provides updates on airspace restrictions, airport data and weather and automatically suggests alternative routes to the dispatcher if necessary.

FreeFlight is an innovative system which allows airlines to take advantage of the emerging new correspondent concept, which improves capacity and efficiency in air traffic management.

Stefan Auerbach, Senior Vice President Sales EMEA at Lufthansa Systems, added: "We are proud that Etihad has expanded its cooperation with Lufthansa Systems and will rely on our flight planning solutions to enhance their operational efficiency. As the national carrier of the United Arab Emirates, Etihad's decision will help us to further increase our customer base across the Middle East."

Etihad already uses the NetLine/Plan and NetLine/Sched solutions for planning and scheduling, as well as managed WAN (Wide Area Network) services from Lufthansa Systems.