Celebrating Shared Stories: SAP

The story of this partnership has a surprisingly personal starting point. Long before global framework agreements and joint-venture negotiations, there were early mornings in Munich, a transatlantic route, and a relationship that quite literally depended on getting there on time. Anne Delgado flew from Munich to Chicago every other week. Her husband was waiting on the other side of the Atlantic and those weekends together, as she recalls, “were our anchor – the moments that made the distance bearable.” Even through the heaviest Midwest snowstorms, Lufthansa never let her down. “Looking back, that reliability wasn’t just operational excellence, it was something deeply human. It gave us time we couldn’t afford to lose. And that’s a feeling I’ve never forgotten.”

That sense of trust, once formed, has a way of carrying forward. “Over the years, our partnership has developed from a primarily operational relationship into a truly strategic collaboration which supports the long-term transformation of SAP’s travel program,” Delgado says. “What began as focused cooperation in clearly defined areas has gradually expanded into a broader, trust-based alliance that touches multiple parts of our business, from customer experience and digitalization to operational efficiency and sustainability.”

One milestone stands out in particular: the work of converting a patchwork of local agreements into a single, coherent global joint-venture (JV) framework. “The most significant milestone for me was that we finally were able to turn some of the local agreements into global JV agreements,” she says. “It took various rounds of negotiation and internal discussions, but we finally achieved this milestone together after almost two years of planning.” The result was concrete: “Not only better discounts for SAP but also less administrative work for us.”

On a personal level, the relationship carries a weight that goes beyond any contract. “The connection to the Lufthansa Group goes well beyond the contractual framework we manage in our daily work,” Delgado reflects. “For me, it represents a sense of trust, reliability, and shared purpose that has grown over many years of collaboration.”

Asked to distill that into just three words, she doesn’t hesitate: “Global, strategic, but still personal.”

Beneath the commercial framework lies something more enduring: a set of values that each organization holds independently and recognizes in the other. Sustainability plays a central role. Lufthansa Group’s focus on fleet modernization, alternative fuels, and emissions reduction sits alongside SAP’s long‑standing emphasis on carbon accounting, ESG reporting, and sustainable supply chain management. These are not joint initiatives, but complementary priorities. In both cases, sustainability is not driven by short‑term pressure; it is embedded in how each company chooses to operate.

There is also a shared global mindset. Lufthansa Group connects people and cultures across continents. SAP supports customers in more than 180 countries. When two organizations of that scale align on purpose and direction, the potential is considerable – and the responsibility equally so.

For Delgado, the decade ahead will demand faster evolution from both industries than anything seen before. But that, she argues, is precisely where the greatest opportunity lies. “By combining Lufthansa Group’s industry leadership with SAP’s technological strengths, we can shape a future of business travel that is not only more efficient and more digital, but also significantly more sustainable. And that, to me, is a challenge worth tackling together.” And she adds: “The next big destination on our shared map is clear – redefining business travel for the next generation.”

Her vision is equally unambiguous: “We have the opportunity not just to support travel, but to shape how the world moves – smarter, greener, and with purpose.”

Our partnership helps power global business. Looking ahead to technologies like AI, what is the single biggest opportunity we have to make international teamwork even more seamless and efficient?

“When I think about the future of global teamwork, I picture all the little moments that make up a business trip – the rush to the airport, the uncertainty during a delay, the hope that everything just works so you can focus on the people waiting on the other side. And that’s exactly where AI becomes our biggest shared opportunity. AI can turn all those scattered moments into one connected journey. It can predict a disruption before the traveler even notices, offer a smarter alternative instantly, or surface the right information at the right time without anyone needing to ask. It’s the chance to remove friction from travel so collaboration across borders becomes almost effortless. For me, the real opportunity is simple: using AI to give every traveler the feeling that someone is already one step ahead, taking care of the complexity so they can focus on what truly matters – the work, the people, the purpose behind the trip.”