Swiss names Lufthansa Group manager Jens Fehlinger as its new CEO

Swiss International Air Lines has named Lufthansa Group manager Jens Fehlinger as its new chief executive beginning on 1 October. Fehlinger succeeds Dieter Vranckx, who will leave the Zurich-based carrier at the beginning of July. Earlier this year, Vranckx was appointed to the Lufthansa Group Executive Board. In the interim, chief commercial officer Heike Birlenbach will fill the airline’s top role, the company said on 28 June. “In Jens Fehlinger we have secured the services for our company of a genuine connoisseur of the air transport sector,” Swiss’ board chairman Reto Francioni says. “He has accumulated extensive experience in various areas within the Lufthansa Group and he has proven well able to deliver innovations in our industry.” “He has shown vision, strategic flair and operational expertise, along with an ability to work closely with his teams, to establish a new airline and, in doing so, he has confirmed his capacity to guide a company to success,” Francioni adds. Fehlinger began his professional career at Lufthansa Group in 2006, where he held management positions that included head of corporate airline strategy and business development for Lufthansa Airlines and head of operations performance management and analytics for the Lufthansa Group. He also led the group’s crisis management office during the Covid-19 pandemic as well as its subsequent ReNew restructuring programme.<br/>