Swiss appoints Jens Fehlinger as new CEO
Published: Friday, Jun 28th 2024, 10:10
Updated At: Saturday, Jun 29th 2024, 01:59
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It is now known who will be the new CEO of Swiss and thus succeed Dieter Vranckx: Lufthansa manager and pilot Jens Fehlinger will take over the cockpit of the Swiss airline in the fall. Fehlinger has proven his skills several times at the parent company.
Fehlinger will start as CEO of Swiss on October 1, as the company announced on Friday. As Vranckx will be joining the Executive Board of Lufthansa in just a few days, Head of Commercial Heike Birlenbach will lead Swiss ad interim for the next three months.
With Fehlinger, Swiss is gaining a "profound expert in the industry", Chairman of the Board of Directors Reto Francioni is quoted as saying in the press release. With his personality, he fits in with the Executive Board team and the "distinctive culture of Swiss". He has proven that he can successfully drive innovation in aviation.
Numerous management tasks at Lufthansa
The 43-year-old Fehlinger is now Managing Director of Lufthansa City Airlines, the Group's feeder subsidiary based in Munich. He has built up the new airline, which was launched a few days ago. Prior to that, he was co-head of the predecessor airline Lufthansa CityLine.
Fehlinger began his professional career at Lufthansa in 2006, where he earned his spurs in various management positions. For example, he was in charge of strategy and business development at Lufthansa Airlines and managed the Group's performance management, which aims to improve processes and services.
Fehlinger played a special role at Lufthansa during the coronavirus pandemic. At the time, he was responsible for the Group's crisis management office and subsequently headed up the ReNew restructuring program, which involved savings, the repayment of state aid and a return to normal operations.
The German citizen is also a pilot. Fehlinger holds a commercial pilot's license and currently flies Airbus A320 family aircraft for Lufthansa CityLine, according to the press release.
Highly profitable subsidiary
Fehlinger himself is looking forward to his new role at Swiss: "It is a great company that has done outstanding work, especially in recent years, and is now a healthy, growing company after the crisis." He emphasizes the "Swissness" lived in the company as a "valuable asset".
Swiss plays a strong role in the Lufthansa Group and is considered its most important subsidiary. In 2023, the airline significantly increased its revenue to CHF 5.3 billion, putting the coronavirus crisis years firmly behind it. Swiss also generated a record profit of CHF 718 million.
This is also thanks to the departure of Swiss CEO Dieter Vranckx, who is moving to the Executive Board of the Lufthansa Group on July 1, 2024 after more than three years. There he will head the "Global Markets and Commercial Management Hubs" division. Vranckx will remain with Swiss as Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors.
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