Domani dovrebbe esserci l'ufficializzazione. Prenderà il posto di Mayrhuber.
Lufthansa expected to name new chief
By Ralph Atkins in Berlin
Published: September 21 2010 17:04 | Last updated: September 21 2010 17:04
Lufthansa is expected on Wednesday to confirm that its deputy chief executive will take over the top job at the German airline from Wolfgang Mayrhuber.
Christoph Franz is expected to be named chief executive of Europe’s largest airline by revenues after a meeting of Lufthansa’s supervisory board. Mr Franz has been widely tipped for the job since taking responsibility for the airline’s passenger business in June last year.
He will take over the leadership of Lufthansa at a time when the German airline is recovering from the severe downturn in aviation and benefiting from the boom in German exports, but still faces a host of challenges to secure its future profitability.
In his in-tray will be pending decisions on possible future acquisitions – for instance of SAS, the Scandinavian airline, which is widely tipped as a takeover target.
Mr Mayrhuber, 63, who was born in Austria, led an acquisition spree which saw Lufthansa taking control of Swiss airlines, Brussels Airlines, Austrian Airlines and BMI British Midland. He also initiated extensive cost saving programmes to help boost profitability in the face of increasing competition from Europe’s low-cost airlines and other global operators. More recently, he has clashed with the German government over Berlin’s plans for a levy on air travel to help reduce public borrowings.
Mr Mayrhuber has worked for Lufthansa for more than 40 years, rising upthrough its technical and engineering operations. Mr Franz, 50, joined Lufthansa in 1990 and was involved initially in strategic planning, helping draw up the blueprint for turning around the company in the years after the first Gulf war.
In 1994 Mr Franz left Lufthansa and moved to Deutsche Bahn, the German railway operator. Ten years later, he became chief executive of Swiss, overseeing the airline’s restructuring.
Lufthansa reported an operating loss of €171m in the first half of this year, after being hit by strike action by its pilots, a severe winter,and the shutting down of European airspace as a result of the eruption of a volcano in Iceland. However, the loss was €179m less than in the same period a year earlier.
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Financial Times
Lufthansa expected to name new chief
By Ralph Atkins in Berlin
Published: September 21 2010 17:04 | Last updated: September 21 2010 17:04
Lufthansa is expected on Wednesday to confirm that its deputy chief executive will take over the top job at the German airline from Wolfgang Mayrhuber.
Christoph Franz is expected to be named chief executive of Europe’s largest airline by revenues after a meeting of Lufthansa’s supervisory board. Mr Franz has been widely tipped for the job since taking responsibility for the airline’s passenger business in June last year.
He will take over the leadership of Lufthansa at a time when the German airline is recovering from the severe downturn in aviation and benefiting from the boom in German exports, but still faces a host of challenges to secure its future profitability.
In his in-tray will be pending decisions on possible future acquisitions – for instance of SAS, the Scandinavian airline, which is widely tipped as a takeover target.
Mr Mayrhuber, 63, who was born in Austria, led an acquisition spree which saw Lufthansa taking control of Swiss airlines, Brussels Airlines, Austrian Airlines and BMI British Midland. He also initiated extensive cost saving programmes to help boost profitability in the face of increasing competition from Europe’s low-cost airlines and other global operators. More recently, he has clashed with the German government over Berlin’s plans for a levy on air travel to help reduce public borrowings.
Mr Mayrhuber has worked for Lufthansa for more than 40 years, rising upthrough its technical and engineering operations. Mr Franz, 50, joined Lufthansa in 1990 and was involved initially in strategic planning, helping draw up the blueprint for turning around the company in the years after the first Gulf war.
In 1994 Mr Franz left Lufthansa and moved to Deutsche Bahn, the German railway operator. Ten years later, he became chief executive of Swiss, overseeing the airline’s restructuring.
Lufthansa reported an operating loss of €171m in the first half of this year, after being hit by strike action by its pilots, a severe winter,and the shutting down of European airspace as a result of the eruption of a volcano in Iceland. However, the loss was €179m less than in the same period a year earlier.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
Financial Times
