The Lufthansa Group had its strongest year ever in 2017. But they’re not resting on their laurels. Not by a long shot.

Lufthansa Group officials touched down in Toronto on Wednesday to talk about their digital plans, their work with travel agents and future expansion. Not to mention flying chefs, Viennese coffee and the new Montreal-Vienna flights that will begin next April on Austrian Airlines.

Heike Birlenbach, Senior Vice President Sales Lufthansa HUB Airlines, said she’s proud that Skytrax earlier this year named Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines as the top three carries in Europe. She also said Lufthansa is the first and only European airline to gain five-star status from Skytrax.

But the Lufthansa Group, which includes those three airlines as well as Eurowings, Brussels Airlines and Edelweiss, continues to invest – and invest heavily – in new aircraft and in digital solutions.

“We like to say we’re human-centric,” said Birlenbach, who obtained her Masters degree at McGill University. “In the airline industry so many things are changing and customers’ expectations are changing. We believe we have to have the right answers to that and that we respond to customer needs.”

Birlenbach said Lufthansa is a big believer in technology and digitalization, which can be used to offer customers everything from the seat they want to lounge access or speedy boarding.

“We’re frontrunners in new distribution methods,” she said. “We’re pretty successful in driving NDC, and there’s no way back. We have 2,000 agencies connected by an NDC capable distribution channel, and this is a clear message that we’d like to invite the travel industry to walk with us into the future.”

Birlenbach said the Lufthansa Group has many self-servicing features, allowing travel managers to get the information they need.

“We’re spending 500 million Euros on digital in the coming years. We even started a new company called the Lufthansa Innovation Hub to look for start-ups with great ideas in the travel industry.”

Birlenbach said Lufthansa Group is working on a continuous pricing model that will by pass the current “alphabet system” and allow them to price airline seats in incremental values, perhaps as little as a dollar or ten dollars.

“We also have solutions for smaller travel agencies. We want to take the trade along and make them understand why we’re moving in these directions.”

Hans DeHaan, Senior Director Canada for Lufthansa Group, said Austrian Airlines will begin flying between Montreal and Vienna on April 29, 2019. The Toronto-Vienna flight they have now is shifting to Air Canada, an airline they work closely with and that they’re co-operating with on a stronger basis than ever.

Last year was a record-breaking year for LHG, and this year looks to be quite strong as well, Birlenbach said.

Lufthansa Group flies from major Canadian airports to Frankfurt, Munich, Brussels, Vienna and Zurich.

Birlenbach said the Lufthansa Group is spending roughly $3 billion on new aircraft, new services and digitalization.

They’re also on the cutting edge when it comes to in-flight services. DeHaan said customers can program movies they want to play on their flight even before they climb on board the plane, or program their music playlist.

Lufthansa passengers have access to approximately 180 films in all travel classes. Austrian Airlines has a “coffee house in the sky” with 11 Viennese coffees and also a “flying chef” who creates dishes for Austrian Airlines’ six-course gourmet menus on long haul flights.

DeHaan said they LHG also has started Stop Over Switzerland and Belgium stop over programs, with free stops of two to four nights in both Brussels and Zurich.

The Lufthansa Group (LHG) is the largest airline group in Europe. All told, LHG transported 1.2 million passengers to and from Canada last year. Overall, the Lufthansa Group operates 11,111 weekly flights to 271 destinations in 105 countries (winter timetable) and employs 130,000 workers worldwide.