Based in Frankfurt am Main, Lufthansa Group is one of the most recognized names in aviation across Europe and the world. With over 300 subsidiaries, including network airlines, point-to-point airlines and service companies, they ensure the safe and timely travel of thousands of passengers daily.

Modernizing Analytics in Tableau Cloud

Like many large enterprises, Lufthansa Group is comprised of many subsidiaries that have a mix of data and analytics platforms. Even so, most subsidiaries under the Lufthansa Group banner utilized Tableau Server as their primary analytics hub, with each group operating their own instances. This means change often occurs in group-by-group phases.

With Tableau Server support and functionality diminishing in favor of Tableau Cloud, two teams within Lufthansa Group were the first to explore migrating from Tableau Server to Tableau Cloud: Lufthansa Group Airlines and Miles & More. Again, each managed their own sites with their own migration considerations. The primary reason for both groups was the need for improved performance as well as growing interest in features like Tableau Pulse.

Before any migration work occurred, however, the Lufthansa Group Airlines and Miles & More teams wisely reached out to their contacts at Tableau for guidance. Tableau, in turn, recommended they reach out the InterWorks DACH team who had significant specialized experience with Tableau Cloud migrations.

The first step on the migration journey for both Lufthansa Group Airlines and Miles & More was to schedule free Tableau Cloud migration assessments with the InterWorks team. These assessments would identify the unique needs and criteria each group needed for a successful and speedy migration process.

The Lufthansa Group Airlines Tableau Cloud Migration

After conducting the initial Tableau Cloud Migration assessment, the InterWorks team identified nearly 400 projects to be migrated, as well as 850 data sources and 1200 workbooks. These ranged from production and cargo operations to country and agency-specific security reporting.

In the timespan of about three months, InterWorks completed the successful migration of all these elements to Tableau Cloud without any major hiccups. If you’re familiar with any type of technology migration, you’ll know that changes like this often experience issues that require significant troubleshooting. The InterWorks team was particularly helpful navigating changes to Tableau Bridge, executing delta refreshes of workbooks and data sources, reconfiguring extract refreshes and their subscriptions, UAT and some SAML troubleshooting.

The Miles & More Tableau Cloud Migration

Running in parallel to the Lufthansa Group Airlines Tableau Cloud migration was the Miles & More Tableau Cloud migration. The InterWorks team identified nearly 300 projects, over 400 data sources and around 1300 workbooks to be migrated. Furthermore, InterWorks helped Miles & More discover some unique differences for Flows on Tableau Cloud with some advice on how to best address the issues.

Much like the Lufthansa Group Airlines Tableau Cloud migration, the Miles & More migration was completed in the span of a few months. InterWorks was particularly helpful in navigating some early performance issues with Tableau Prep workflows as well as integrating Tableau App with Microsoft Teams for improved user experience.

The Swiss Airlines Tableau Cloud Migration

Swiss Airlines was already part of the Lufthansa Group Airlines Tableau Server instance, and their operational teams were heavily reliant on the insights found in Tableau. It was extremely important that the migration didn’t interrupt their day-to-day operations, and that the team could experience and seamless transition to work as efficiently as possible.

The Austrian Airlines Tableau Cloud Migration

Austrian Airlines was managing their own Tableau Server, but they found it difficult to keep up with Tableau Server administration. In addition, they shared a lot of the same data sources as Lufthansa Group Airlines. Instead of migrating to a new Tableau Cloud instance, we worked with both Austrian Airlines and Lufthansa to merge Austrian Airlines’ content into Lufthansa Group Airline’s Tableau Cloud instance for a more streamlined setup with less administrative overhead.

The Difference Modernization Makes

Across multiple parallel Tableau Cloud migrations – spanning Lufthansa Group Airlines, Miles & More, Swiss Airlines and Austrian Airlines – modernization proved to be a catalyst for scale, stability and simplicity. In just a few months, thousands of projects, data sources and workbooks were successfully migrated with minimal disruption to business-critical operations.

By moving to Tableau Cloud, each organization reduced infrastructure and administrative overhead, improved performance and reliability, and created a more unified analytics environment. Challenges that typically slow down migrations like Tableau Bridge changes, SAML setup and performance tuning were addressed proactively, allowing teams to maintain trust in their data throughout the transition. The result was not just a technical upgrade, but a more resilient, streamlined and user-friendly analytics platform that better supports collaboration, growth and day-to-day decision-making