Dominika Maj and Ewa Szymkowicz - students of UITM in Rzeszow on the specialty Aviation Management - were the first to have the opportunity to complete internship in Deutche Lufthansa AG. Dominika and Ewa decided to use the time of holiday break for even more intense work and spent two months in the carrier's headquarters in Warsaw, where they participated in the work of various operational departments. Such a opportunity was possible thanks to cooperation agreement signed in April between our university and Lufthansa. Below we present the report prepared by the internship participants:

TRAINING IN DEUTSCHE LUFTHANSA AG POLISH BRANCH
IN WARSAW-REPORT

Our training last 2 months, betwaeen August and September 2011 and took place in the headquarters of Deutsche Lufthansa AG in Warsaw.

The purpose of the training was to learn about new sales leads in airline industry and business account management as well as activation of SACP companies. We also got the knowledge on the methods of supporting pricing process and building online strategy.

At the very beginning we had an interview with General Sales Manager as well as representatives of the other operational departments of the carrier. We were examined in terms of our experience and predispositions and finally allocated to specific divisions:

Dominika - Marketing & Online Pricing Department,

Ewa - Sales Department.

At the beginning of our training we were introduced to organizational structure of Lufthansa Group in Poland and we got familiarize with the tasks which would be in the range of our responsibilities during intership. Mr. Bart Buyse - General Manager of Lufthansa in Poland, took an effort and by himself described performance of the company in more detailed way.

The most interesting point of our training was the participation in company’s internal meetings, during which we had opportunity to better understand both strategies and targets of the company. We had also a pleasure to take part in a meeting with Lufthansa’s General Manager for Central Europe.

We really enjoyed one-day visit at Warsaw Chopin Airport. We became acquainted with the work of operational departments.

Trainee in Marketing & Pricing Department was responsible for:

· presentation about results of Affiliate Marketing;

· Lufthansa product presentation for tourist segment;

· compilation Global Event list for 2012 and 2013;

· presentation about selected Polish airports;

· edition newsletters lufthansa.com using Lufthansa Online Briefing Tool (OBT);

· updating Polish Facebook site;

· translation contents for Polish side lufthansa.com;

· analysis discounts along with preparing reports and commentary;

· analysis and reports about reservations quantity in selected Lufthansa Group flights in order to adjustment to future market needs;

· creation data base about future clients from inward and outward sources;

· other tasks for Business Development Unit.

Responsibilities of Trainee in Sales Department:

· study and active work with sales systems: Connect (customers management system), PartnerPlusBenefit (platform for corporate clients service), GiudeRes (reservation system), Intranet;

· participation in contracting groups:  preparing contracts,  assistance in setting up group reservation;

· familiarization with the work of Business Development Unit;

· realization of the project: ,,Activation of corporate clients”, which was the main task during training; contacting with companies and travel agencies in order to optimize the activity of the corporate portfolio.

In our opinion this training was very fruitful. We gained precious experience as well as practical skills that are necessary in everyday work in airline industry. We had to admit that all people we meet are very open-minded and willing to share their experience and knowledge. All these factors caused that time spent in Lufthansa was very effective. We strongly recommend our colleagues to participate in such kind of training in the next years.

Maj Dominika

Szymkowicz Ewa