Lufthansa Systems uses Nutrient to deliver reliable, scalable PDF rendering for pilots worldwide
Table of contents
“They [Nutrient] simply get it all done. That’s the liability that we talked about; they just handle it.”
Use case
Lufthansa Systems needed a scalable, reliable SDK to render aviation charts and operational documents for pilots using the Lido mPilot app.
Challenges
- Lack of scalable PDF handling for precomposed aviation charts such as departure, arrival, and approach procedures.
- Inability to rely on basic PDF tools, which were too limited for pilots who required feature-rich interactions.
- Scaling to meet growing pilot expectations for robust annotations, state persistence, and future growth across multiple airlines.
Solutions
- Able to integrate a feature-rich iOS SDK that delivers PDF rendering, annotations, form viewing, form filling, and digital signatures.
- Successfully enabled advanced annotation tools that pilots preferred over the early internal SVG annotation implementation.
- Confidently delivered reliable viewing, state persistence, and digital signatures using Nutrient’s form viewing, filling, rotation, and zoom-saving capabilities.
Results
- Lufthansa Systems fully trusts the rendering of critical aviation charts — “we never questioned it.”
- Lufthansa Systems can easily scale chart functionality as pilot needs evolve, requesting features from Nutrient rather than building complex rendering or annotation tools on its own.
- Lufthansa Systems now accomplishes near-instant delivery when enabling new capabilities through licensing, including digital signatures.
Przemyslaw Stolarz, a product analyst for the charting application Lido mPilot(opens in a new tab) by Lufthansa Systems, works with teams responsible for translating pilot needs into functional requirements. His role focuses on ensuring that pilots, dispatchers, and operations teams have access to dependable tools that support real-world aviation workflows. When Stolarz’s team evaluated document technology, the need was clear: It required a partner that could deliver not only functionality, but trust and long-term growth.
Why Lufthansa Systems needed a reliable, scalable PDF rendering solution
Lufthansa Systems, a leading airline IT provider, has been shaping the future of digital aviation for 30 years. Helping airlines unlock their full potential, the company combines profound industry know-how with advanced technological expertise. Its charting app, Lido mPilot, was built to support pilots during critical phases of flight by delivering precomposed navigation and operational charts. These charts are distributed as PDFs, and they include departure, arrival, and approach procedures, as well as airline-specific operational documents.
Lufthansa Systems faced more than just a document viewing challenge. The development team needed an SDK that could support real aviation workflows, enable pilots to interact with content, and perform consistently across thousands of daily usage points.
Less sophisticated PDF tools introduced risk. These basic solutions simply lacked the depth of functionality Lufthansa Systems required for annotations, form interaction, and long-term maintainability. In a safety- and regulation-driven industry like aviation, Lufthansa Systems needed a solution that would reliably work — and continue working — without hesitation.
Scalability was another core requirement. From its conception, the Lido mPilot app was designed to be licensed to other airlines, which meant the foundation needed to support steady growth without constant reinvention.
“We are only using a small chunk of what you can offer, but it still gets it all nicely done.”
How Nutrient powered Lido mPilot for iOS by Lufthansa Systems
Lufthansa Systems embedded Nutrient iOS SDK directly into the Lido mPilot app to power document rendering and interaction. The SDK is used to visualize static, precomposed aviation charts and airline operational documents inside a mobile, pilot-ready interface.
The team relied on several core capabilities from the SDK:
- High-fidelity PDF rendering for aviation charts
- Advanced annotations for pilot interaction
- Form viewing and form filling for operational workflows
- Digital signatures, enabled later through licensing
Reliability continues to be foundational. The team described the SDK as something it never has to question, because it consistently renders charts without introducing uncertainty into safety-critical workflows. As new versions of iOS are released, Lufthansa Systems trusts Nutrient to remain compatible and compliant.
Scalability has been embedded in the partnership since day one. Instead of engineering each new feature internally, Lufthansa Systems relies on Nutrient to enable and expand functionality when needed. This makes it possible to respond to pilot and airline needs faster without any concern of destabilizing the product.
“The contact with the Nutrient team is more personal now — like a crew.”
The impact on pilots, product teams, and customers
The impact centered on trust, stability, and operational confidence.
Before using Nutrient iOS SDK, Lufthansa Systems relied on more limited PDF handling approaches that required greater internal effort and carried more risk in a safety-critical environment. After integrating the SDK, reliable rendering became something the team no longer needed to question — it’s simply treated as a given rather than a concern.
When new versions of iOS are released, Lufthansa Systems doesn’t need to rebuild core PDF functionality. Instead, it relies on Nutrient to deliver compatibility updates, effectively outsourcing that technical maintenance burden from its internal teams.
The team is also able to deliver pilot-requested functionality faster. Rather than engineering complex document features internally, Nutrient enables Lufthansa Systems to easily scale SDK capabilities through licensing and configuration.
Reliability
Lufthansa Systems trusts the rendering of charts and “never questioned it,” even in safety-critical workflows.
Scalability
The SDK enables Lufthansa Systems to easily extend functionality without engineering it internally.
Capabilities
Lufthansa Systems continues to deliver a robust, feature-rich experience to pilots.
A future-ready partnership built on reliability and scale
With Nutrient’s support, Lufthansa Systems moved from limited tools to a trusted document foundation for aviation workflows. What began as a need for PDF handling evolved into a partnership built on consistent performance, feature richness, and long-term scalability.
By choosing a platform designed for reliability and growth, Lufthansa Systems positioned its product to support evolving pilot needs, airline demands, and future operational requirements with confidence.
