Lufthansa appoints the insider Carsten Spohr as Chief Executive Officer

The second-largest airliner in Europe after Air France-KLM Group by traffic – Deutsche Lufthansa AG – officially announced that the internal candidate Carsten Spohr was appointed by the companys supervisory board today as Chief Executive Officer and successor of Christoph Franz.

Mr. Spohr is known for heading Lufthansas main passenger airline unit since January 2011. The company made a statement saying that he is expected to take the position of Chief Executive Officer on May the 1st. The ex-CEO of Lufthansa announced in September 2013 that he had made the decision to leave the company in order to become Chairman of the supervisory board at Roche Holding AG, which is one of the most famous Swiss drugmakers.

Mr. Christoph Franz was criticized by some of the companys employees for trying to wring savings from Lufthansa, while attempting to increase its operating profit to 2.3 billion Euro (3.1 billion dollars) by 2015.

Carsten Spohr said for Bloomberg today: “As a Lufthansa man born and bred, I view the appointment as both an honour and an obligation. I am convinced that the company is on the right track. Together, we will make our company resilient and ready for the future.” When taking the lead of the company, Mr. Spohr will leave the position at the passenger airline unit. Lufthansa announced that his successor at the division will be appointed by the end of April 2014.

The change of Lufthansas head comes at a time when the company is trying to eliminate its competition created by both discount rivals and Gulf carriers. The company has decided to move short-haul services outside Frankfurt and Munich to Germanwings, which is a low-cost entity. It is also working on the improvement of first and business class cabins to make up lost positions on intercontinental operations.

One of the consultants working for AT Kearney – Joern Grotepass said for Bloomberg: “Europe’s big-three airlines have fallen behind while focusing on cost-cutting. They have to an extent lost their vision.”

Deutsche Lufthansa AGs shares rose by 0.95% to EUR 17.485 by 14:40 GMT on Friday.