“Sometimes, you need to change perspectives in order to gain new insights!” he wrote in a social media post. Lufthansa Airlines CEO Jens Ritter got hands-on recently, working as part of the flight crew on a couple international flights. Ritter, who started in the top post last year, worked as an “additional crew member” on flights to Riyadh and Bahrain. Ritter posted about the experience on LinkedIn, including photos of him manning the drinks cart, handing out a cup to a passenger, and posing with the entire flight crew. “Sometimes, you need to change perspectives in order to gain new insights!” Ritter wrote in the post. “I have been working for the Lufthansa Group for many years. But I have never had the opportunity to work as part of the cabin crew. And honestly, that was so interesting and also challenging! I was amazed by how much there is to organize, especially, if something doesn’t go as planned… I was astonished how much I learned in these few hours. Deciding things in the office will be different after really feeling the decisions on board.” He also noted that he incorrectly thought his pilot experience would help him. "I used to fly as a pilot and so I thought I knew about the challenges a flight during the night entails," he wrote. "But to be present and attentive and charming – when the biological clock just tells you to sleep – was something entirely different."<br/>
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Air New Zealand is flying high after returning a huge profit.<br/>It's the first time in three years the national airline is in the clear, posting a $412m surplus in the 12 months to June. Air New Zealand has come under fire in recent times for skyrocketing domestic prices. And while CE Greg Foran couldn't promise prices would fall, he hoped they'd remain steady. "We've got a portfolio that we need to balance so I would say it's great to be back in the black and being able to stand on our own two feet," he told AM co-host Laura Tupou. "Running a business at a loss for several years makes it difficult to invest." Foran said expenses for the likes of fuel, parts, catering, dry-cleaning and landing fees remained elevated. "That's why I'm saying it's unlikely that we will see fares go back to 2019 levels because some of those costs aren't going to go away. It's really hard to speculate on what's going to happen with fares - it's been a hot topic of conversation and I expected that after you go into a profit situation that we have gone into." Air New Zealand had cheaper airfares available but Foran said that often required booking flights as early as possible. "Fares vary around depending on when you book, generally, and so what we want to do is make sure we get a profit, we can buy some more planes, we can get some more seats out there for customers… so that we do keep our fares reasonable. "I think we take a more measured approach to how we address things… I'm a bit averse to doing gimmicky-type sales, I'd rather us concentrate on delivering a product over a long period of time and doing a good job of doing that."<br/>