Lufthansa CEO Becomes Flight Attendant on Two Flights

Lufthansa's CEO, Jens Ritter, took a break from his regular duties to become a flight attendant on two flights. He was part of the cabin crew on a round-trip flight between Lufthansa's primary hub of Frankfurt Airport (FRA) and the Middle East. The flight flew from Frankfurt to Bahrain International Airport (BAH), briefly stopping at King Khalid International Airport (RUH) in Riyadh. Lufthansa offers daily service to both destinations from Frankfurt. Passengers can also fly to Frankfurt from Bahrain and Riyadh with Gulf Air and Saudia, respectively.

Ritter wanted to work as a flight attendant to explore the aviation industry from a different perspective. He made the following statement on LinkedIn about his goal: "Sometimes you need to change perspectives in order to gain new insights! This week, I [will accompany] our Lufthansa Airlines flight crew heading to Riyadh and Bahrain as an 'additional crew member.'"

Ritter worked as a flight attendant in business class on the way to Riyadh and economy class on the way back. The job was not easy for him; he acknowledged that cabin crew must have outstanding organizational skills to handle various duties.

Ritter added the following in his LinkedIn post: "I was amazed by how much there is to organize, especially, if something doesn't go as planned - for example the meals offered on the menu cards were not exactly the meals loaded on board. It was so interesting to address the guests' wishes individually, to deal with the different energy everyone has."

Ritter started his aviation career at Lufthansa's commercial pilot school in 2000. After many years of flying, Ritter moved across various corporate positions at the different airlines within the Lufthansa Group before becoming Lufthansa's CEO in April 2022. The Lufthansa Group owns multiple European airlines, including Swiss International Air Lines and Australian Airlines. Ritter is also a captain for the Airbus A320 family of aircraft.

Despite his extensive aviation background, Ritter still found the role of being a flight attendant to be a culture shock. He said: "I used to fly as a pilot and so I thought I knew about the challenges a flight during the night entails. But to be present and attentive and charming - when the biological clock just tells you to sleep - was something entirely different."

Ritter enjoyed the challenge of his temporary role and was impressed by his cabin crew colleagues' support. He concluded his LinkedIn post by saying: "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. Thank you to the amazing crew [for] making this experience possible!"

Ritter's decision to see flights firsthand comes at a period of strength for Lufthansa. The airline's parent company, Lufthansa Group, saw record profits in the second quarter of this year. Some of the group's airlines recorded their highest second-quarter results ever. These strong results occurred due to higher ticket prices and passenger flight demand.

The Lufthansa Group served more than 55 million passengers on its flights between January and June 2023, representing a 30% increase from the same period in 2022. Data for the second quarter alone shows that 33.3 million passengers flew on flights by the group's airlines, equivalent to 84% of pre-pandemic passenger levels.

Due to Lufthansa's strong performance in recent months, Ritter saw this experiment as an opportunity to learn how the airline can improve in the future. Employees on the corporate side of an airline often need to know more about the flight side. Therefore, Ritter wanted to see a different side of the industry firsthand.

Airline CEOs becoming flight attendants is a relatively uncommon occurrence. In December 2022, someone took a picture of Air New Zealand's CEO Greg Foran providing water to a passenger in a flight cabin. These two events suggest that the most effective way to improve in-flight service is for corporate executives to go in the flight cabins themselves.