Deutsche Lufthansa AG said it is partnering with Alphabet Inc.'s Google Cloud to build an artificial intelligence platform that would help the German airline minimize the impact of flight delays, re-bookings and weather-related disruptions on its passengers.

The strategic partnership between Lufthansa and Google Cloud aims to unify its IT systems and data coming from various processes relevant to the stable operations of the airline, such as aircraft replacement, maintenance and crew scheduling. The resulting AI platform is expected to provide scenarios to return Lufthansa to a stable flight plan in case of irregularities, enabling the carrier to anticipate trouble and prepare countermeasures early on, a company release said.

Lufthansa's IT and operations experts will work with software engineers from Google Cloud to develop and test the new platform.

More than 145 million passengers flew with Lufthansa in 2019, a record number for the German carrier, the company said. This was despite a cabin crew strike in November of that year that resulted in around 1,300 flight cancellations.