Swiss International Air Lines chief executive Dieter Vranckx will leave his post to join Lufthansa Group’s executive board, responsible for global markets and commercial steering hubs, in July.
The Zurich-headquartered airline, part of Lufthansa Group, said on 22 February that in his new role Vranckx, who has been at the helm of Swiss since 2021, will also be responsible for the parent company’s customer experience and brand management. Those two areas had previously been part of the group’s brand and sustainability division.
Vranckx will remain deputy chair of Swiss’s board of directors.
The move marks the second major management change announcement at the Swiss carrier in three days. On 19 February, the airline said chief financial officer Markus Binkert will leave the company at the end of May.
“I am really looking forward to these new challenges, and to applying my international experience to the entire Lufthansa Group as part of the executive board team,” Vranckx says. “At the same time, Swiss is my ‘home’, and will always be dear to my heart. So it means a great deal to me that I will also remain closely involved with Swiss in my new capacity.”
Reto Francioni, chair of the Swiss board, says Vranckx “delivered some outstanding achievements” in the past three years as the air transport industry regained footing in the wake of the global Covid-19 pandemic.
“Not only did he guide our airline swiftly, successfully and in sound competitive health out of the global crisis within the airline industry that was prompted by the Covid pandemic, he was also instrumental in stabilising our company,” Francioni says. “Our successful conclusion of new collective labour agreements with our social partners for our ground personnel and our cockpit and cabin crew corps are of particular note here.”
Vranckx, a Belgian-Swiss dual national, has spent 17 years at Swiss and its predecessor, Swissair, in various executive capacities. He has been with Lufthansa group for some two decades.
Prior to his three-year stint as Swiss CEO, Vranckx led Brussels Airlines and served as vice-president of sales and marketing in the Asia-Pacific region, based in Singapore, for Lufthansa Group Airlines.
Swiss says it has launched a search for Vranckx’s successor.
