Deutsche Lufthansa has prematurely extended the contract with its CEO Carsten Spohr. The manager, who has been in office since 2014, is to steer the MDax group in his third term for five more years until the end of 2028, as the supervisory board has decided. CFO Remco Steenbergen, who was appointed for the first time in 2021, was also confirmed until the end of 2028.
Together, the two managers led the group through the existence-threatening Corona crisis, during which the company received government aid worth billions, but repaid it in full at the end of 2022. The managers’ current contracts were valid until the end of the year. “They will be particularly important when it comes to securing a successful future for the Lufthansa Group,” said Karl-Ludwig Kley, Chairman of the Supervisory Board.
The 56-year-old industrial engineer Spohr is a trained pilot and, after an interlude at Deutsche Aerospace AG, has held various management positions for the group since 1994. Shortly after taking office as CEO, he had to cope with the crash of a Germanwings jet caused by the co-pilot in March 2015, which killed 150 people. Before the corona pandemic, he was responsible for the three most successful years of the former German state airline.
Another personnel issue concerns the supervisory board itself: it will be proposed to the general meeting on May 9th to elect the manager of Kühne Holding AG, Karl Gernandt, to the supervisory board. In the future, he will represent Lufthansa’s largest single shareholder, the Hamburg logistics entrepreneur Klaus-Michael Kühne. The American Miriam Sapiro was not re-nominated for the supervisory board. Kley himself and Henkel manager Carsten Knobel are standing for re-election.
Business figures for 2022 this Friday
This Friday, the company wants to present the business figures for the year 2022, which, at least in operational terms, has again closed with a profit in the billions. In addition to the freight subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo, the technology subsidiary, which was able to present a new service contract on Thursday, made a significant contribution to this. The world’s largest operator of the Airbus A380 wide-bodied aircraft, the Arab company Emirates, has outsourced major maintenance work for the first time. The so-called C-Checks are to be carried out in Lufthansa Technik’s A380 Competence Center in Manila.
Lufthansa itself had already removed the A380 from its own fleet before the Corona slump, but now wants to reactivate some jets for the summer due to the current lack of new long-haul aircraft. These machines are also brought into shape in Manila.
Lufthansa orders long-haul jets
At its meeting in Berlin, the Supervisory Board also approved the purchase of 22 new long-haul aircraft. 15 Airbus A350 aircraft and 7 Boeing 787 “Dreamliners” were ordered at a total list price of around 7.5 billion euros. However, large discounts are common when ordering aircraft. The jets are to be delivered from the middle of the decade and will replace older machines with higher pollutant emissions. In addition, the group is in advanced negotiations for other long-haul aircraft that will be available at short notice.
