Carsten Spohr (born 16 December 1966) is a German airline executive. Since May 2014 he has been the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of

Lufthansa Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), trading as the Lufthansa Group, is a German aviation group. Its major and founding subsidiary airline Lufthansa German Airlines, branded as Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. It ranks List of largest airlin ...

Education

After graduating with a degree in

industrial engineering and management Industrial engineering (IE) is concerned with the design, improvement and installation of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy. It draws upon specialized knowledge and skill in the mathematical, physical, an ...

from the University of Karlsruhe (now part of the

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; ) is both a German public research university in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, and a research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 when the University of Karlsruhe (), founde ...

), Spohr obtained a commercial pilot's license at Lufthansa Flight Training in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

and the Airline Training Center Arizona. Spohr continues to maintain this license until the present day. His license allows him to fly the

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first membe ...

Career

After gaining his commercial pilot's license, Spohr enjoyed a brief role at Deutsche Aerospace AG after enrolling in the company's management training programme. Following this, Spohr joined Lufthansa in 1994. Between 1995 and 1998, he served as the personal assistant to the CEO of the company. After this role, he moved on to head various regional partnerships at Lufthansa, for example in 1998, he became head of regional partner management. He was then soon appointed to lead the group's passenger airline strategy. In 2007, he was made CEO of

Lufthansa Cargo Lufthansa Cargo AG is a German cargo airline and a wholly owned subsidiary of Lufthansa. It operates worldwide air freight and logistics services and is headquartered at Frankfurt Airport, Lufthansa's main hub. Besides operating dedicated cargo ...

. In 2011, in recognition of his loyalty to the company, he was invited to join the executive board. On 1 May 2014 Spohr took over from Christoph Franz as Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Lufthansa AG. During his time as CEO there have been poor industrial relations, with a number of strike actions, due to the push to expand Lufthansa's low-cost airline

Germanwings Germanwings GmbH was a German low-cost airline wholly owned by Lufthansa which operated under the Eurowings brand. It was based in Cologne with hubs at Cologne Bonn Airport, Stuttgart Airport, Hamburg Airport, Berlin Tegel Airport, Munich ...

. In 2020, Spohr was temporarily assigned the portfolio for digitisation and finance. According to his profile on ''

Bloomberg Bloomberg may refer to: People * Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer * Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian * Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...

'', his annual compensation amounted to around €2.7 million in 2015. Both in 2019 and in 2023, Spohr's contract was extended for five years. Spohr described the Germanwings Flight 9525 disaster as "the darkest day for Lufthansa in its 60-year history". In the following years, Spohr guided the company through a collapse in demand triggered by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and a subsequent government bailout that saw the state take a 20% stake in the company. In May 2014, Spohr was one of a number of business executives invited to the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

by U.S. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

in a meeting aimed at extending job opportunities from international companies to the U.S. During the Hannover Messe in April 2016, he was among the 15 German CEOs who were invited to a private dinner with Obama. Since 2013, Spohr has accompanied

Chancellor Chancellor () is a title of various official positions in the governments of many countries. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the (lattice work screens) of a basilica (court hall), which separa ...

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

on a total of three state visits abroad, including to China (2014) and

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi is the capital city of the United Arab Emirates. The city is the seat of the Abu Dhabi Central Capital District, the capital city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and the UAE's List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, second-most popu ...

(2017).

Other activities

Corporate boards

Munich Re Munich Re Group or Munich Reinsurance Company () is a German Multinational corporation, multinational insurance company based in Munich, Germany. It is the world's largest reinsurance, reinsurer. ERGO Insurance Group, ERGO, a subsidiary of Munich ...

, Member of the Supervisory Board (since 2020) *

Lufthansa Technik Lufthansa Technik AG ('Lufthansa Engineering', often referred to simply as "LHT") is a Germany-based company that provides maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services for aircraft, engines, and components. It is a subsidiary of the Lufthansa ...

, Chairman of the Supervisory Board (since 2014) *

ThyssenKrupp ThyssenKrupp AG (, ; stylized as thyssenkrupp) is a German industrial engineering and steel production multinational conglomerate. It resulted from the 1999 merger of Thyssen AG and Krupp and has its operational headquarters in Duisburg and E ...

, Member of the Supervisory Board (2013–2019) * Oetker Group, Member of the Advisory Board (2014-2018)

Non-profits

* Baden-Badener Unternehmer-Gespräche (BBUG), Member of the Board *

European School of Management and Technology The European School of Management and Technology, also known as ESMT Berlin, is a private non-profit business school based in Berlin, Germany. The business school was founded in 2002 by 25 companies and institutions and offers a range of Master o ...

(ESMT), Member of the Board of Trustees * Federation of German Industries (BDI), Member of the Presidium (2017-2019) *

Rheingau Musik Festival The (RMF) is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres. Concerts take place at culturally important locations, such as Eberbach Abbey and Schloss Johannisberg, ...

, Member of the Board of TrusteesBoard of Trustees

Personal life

Spohr is married and has two daughters. He and his family currently live in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. Spohr's wife Vivian is head of Lufthansa's Help Alliance which runs aid projects in numerous countries abroad.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spohr, Carsten 1966 births Living people People from Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia German airline chief executives Karlsruhe Institute of Technology alumni Lufthansa people