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 (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding m ...

Education

After graduating with a degree in industrial engineering from the University of Karlsruhe (now part of the

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; german: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) is a public research university in Karlsruhe, Germany. The institute is a national research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 w ...

), 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 (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

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 aircraft, 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 F ...

Career

After gaining his commercial pilot's license, Spohr enjoyed a brief role at

Deutsche Aerospace AG ''Dasa'' ( sa, दास, Dāsa) is a Sanskrit word found in ancient Indian texts such as the ''Rigveda'' and ''Arthasastra''. It usually means "enemy" or "servant" but ''dasa'', or ''das'', also means a " servant of God", "devotee," " votary" or ...

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, the main hub of Lufthansa. Besides operating dedicated ...

. 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 Christoph Franz (born 2 May 1960 in Frankfurt) is a German engineer and manager who served as chief executive officer of Lufthansa from 2011 until 2014. Early life and education Franz studied industrial engineering at the Technical University o ...

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 Ai ...

. 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 and ma ...

'', his annual compensation amounts to around €2.7 million. Spohr described the

Germanwings Flight 9525 Germanwings Flight 9525 PDF of the English translation of the final report and thoriginal French version(which the BEA notes on PDF p. 2/110 of the English PDF is the primary work of reference) was a scheduled international passenger flight fr ...

disaster as "the darkest day for Lufthansa in its 60-year history". 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. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800. ...

by U.S. President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

in a meeting aimed at extending job opportunities from international companies to the U.S. During the

Hannover Messe The Hannover Messe (HM; "Hanover Fair") is one of the world's largest trade fairs, dedicated to the topic of industry development. It is organized by Deutsche Messe AG and held on the Hanover Fairground in Hanover, Germany. Typically, there are ...

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 ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...

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

Abu Dhabi Abu Dhabi (, ; ar, أَبُو ظَبْيٍ ' ) is the capital and second-most populous city (after Dubai) of the United Arab Emirates. It is also the capital of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the centre of the Abu Dhabi Metropolitan Area. ...

(2017).

Other activities

Corporate boards

Lufthansa Technik Lufthansa Technik AG ('Lufthansa Engineering', often referred to simply as “LHT”) provides worldwide maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) services for aircraft, engines, and components. It is a subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group. Headquarte ...

, Chairman of the Supervisory Board (since 2014) *

ThyssenKrupp ThyssenKrupp AG (, ; stylized as thyssenkrupp) is a German industrial engineering and steel production multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. It is the result of the 1999 merger of Thyssen AG and Krupp and h ...

, Member of the Supervisory Board (since 2013) *

Oetker Group Dr. Oetker () is a German multinational company that produces baking powder, cake mixes, frozen pizza, pudding, cake decoration, cornflakes, party candles, and various other products. The company is a wholly owned branch of the Oetker Gro ...

, 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 global companies and institutions including McKinsey & Co ...

(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 ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

. 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