FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Deutsche Lufthansa AG has extended the contract with its CEO Carsten Spohr ahead of schedule. The manager, who has been in office since 2014, is to steer the MDax group in his third term of office for five more years until the end of 2028, as decided by the supervisory board on Thursday. Chief Financial Officer Remco Steenbergen, who was first appointed in 2021, was also confirmed until the end of 2028.
Together, the two managers led the group through the Corona crisis, which threatened its existence and during which the company received billions in state aid, but repaid it in full by the end of 2022. The managers' current contracts were still valid until the end of the year. "They will be particularly important in securing a successful future for the Lufthansa Group," Supervisory Board Chairman Karl-Ludwig Kley now said.
Spohr, 56, an industrial engineer, 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 deal with the co-pilot-caused crash of a Germanwings jet in March 2015 that killed 150 people.
Before the Corona pandemic, he was responsible for the former German state-owned airline's three most economically successful years. This Friday, the company plans to report its financial figures for 2022, which at least operationally ended with a profit in the billions again.
In addition to the cargo subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo, a major contribution to this was made by the MRO subsidiary, which was able to present a new service contract on Thursday. The world's largest operator of the wide-body Airbus A380, the Arab airline Emirates, has outsourced major maintenance work for the first time. The so-called C-checks are to be performed at Lufthansa Technik's A380 competence center in Manila.
Lufthansa itself had already withdrawn the A380 from its own fleet before the Corona slump, but now plans to reactivate some jets for the summer due to the current shortage of new long-haul aircraft. These aircraft will also be refurbished in Manila./ceb/DP/zb
