The Lufthansa Group and SAP have selected nine finalists to the world's first Aviation Blockchain Challenge, which the Lufthansa Innovation Hub and SAP.iO Foundry jointly announced in July.

Over the six-week submission period, teams from 56 countries submitted a total of 312 blockchain ideas.

In the "Traveller Challenge" category, ideas were sought along the entire travel chain with clear benefits for travellers. The finalists are:

•    Sweetbridge: a virtual blockchain-based marketplace with a scalable solution for multi-vendor loyalty programs
•    Sky Buys: a global blockchain-based rewards platform for airport retail
•    Avinoc: a freely available, transparent database for the coordination of private business flights – without an third party intermediary

In the "Airline Challenge" category, in which ideas were meant to improve airline-specific operations and the associated processes, the following teams qualified for the mentoring program:

•    Vchain: a patented blockchain SaaS solution for digital identity management
•    BagX: a neutral blockchain platform for baggage handling developed by a Swissport team. This will make the process completely documentable and transparent across all the involved stakeholders?
•    500labs: a decentralized data network for the global aviation industry to mitigate the effects of flight delays, among other things

In the category "Supplier Challenge", in which the focus was on maintenance and other aspects of the supply chain in aviation, the following teams made it into the next round:

•    14bls Supply Tracking: a blockchain technology that allows the supply chain of aircraft components to be documented thoroughly and with absolute transparency
•    Sorablocks: a blockchain-based platform for the aviation industry, which brings transparency to the management of kerosene across all airlines and airports
•    Skyy network: a blockchain-based solution that consolidates the aviation management of drones in a decentralized and clearly regulated system, enabling the rule-based and automated operations of drones

Over the next few weeks, the nine teams will have the opportunity to further develop and exchange their ideas with experts from the Lufthansa Group and SAP. The final round of the Aviation Blockchain Challenge will take place on October 23 as part of the Lufthansa Innovation Forum at Lufthansa's headquarters in Frankfurt.

On that day, the teams will pitch their blockchain solutions to top management from within the Lufthansa Group and an expert jury, with the prospect of continuing to develop their solution together with Lufthansa.

Blockchain is a relatively new technology with enormous potential in various areas of aviation. Even though there is currently no market-ready blockchain application that permanently changes the value chain of airlines, the topic is gaining momentum and numerous players are increasingly testing new solutions in this area. – TradeArabia News Service