Lufthansa boss: CEO Carsten Spohr
Image: Lucas Bäuml
Carsten Spohr is about to become the longest-serving Lufthansa boss. After the Corona crisis, his next goal is for the group to grow abroad.
DCarsten Spohr found out early on that getting started with an airline doesn’t always work out right away. A good two decades ago, Deutsche Lufthansa was not concerned with the Alitalia successor ITA , but with the Swiss company Swiss . Spohr, now Lufthansa CEO, was the negotiator at the time who had to return to Frankfurt without a degree. In 2005, after failed attempts in the British Airways environment, Swiss came to Lufthansa. Today, the airline is the earnings pearl in the group’s passenger business.
Spohr may have remembered the Swiss episode, since the government in Rome initially surprisingly preferred to offer ITA to a US financial investor with Air France and Delta Airlines in tow. Nothing came of it, and now Lufthansa is the only aspirant in deepened negotiations about ITA. Things are looking good for Lufthansa on the second attempt, and the Italian company is also cheaper. As if he suspected that this would happen, Spohr retained the responsible negotiators.