In the second of our winning stories from 2025’s Airline Strategy Awards, which were held in London on 14 July, former Lufthansa Group executive Harry Hohmeister received the prestigious Airline Business Award
It says a lot about Harry Hohmeister that when he retired from Lufthansa Group last year, a guard of honour was formed by staff on his last day in the office.
Indeed, our recipient began his career with Lufthansa in 1985 in a fleet and flight planning role, before moving into a position focused on reorganising the company’s distribution and marketing division, and then becoming vice-president of network planning.
German national Hohmeister subsequently spent five years at Thomas Cook Airlines, holding various executive management functions in Germany, Belgium and the UK.
Then, in 2005, he took up a senior role with Swiss International Airlines, just as it was being integrated into Lufthansa Group, becoming the airline’s chief executive four years later.
“Our choice of Harry Hohmeister as our new CEO was not a difficult one to make,” said the late Rolf Jetzer, then-chairman of the Swiss board of directors. “He has been instrumental in the successes of our company over the past few years.”
His achievements in elevating Swiss to the next level and smoothing its integration into Lufthansa – against the backdrop of recovery from the global financial crisis – eventually saw him elevated to Lufthansa’s executive board.
“We are successful – but when it comes to change management, we never lean back,” he told Airline Business for a cover interview back in 2014. “Change management never stops.”
Reflecting his legacy at Swiss, the carrier has been a standout performer in Lufthansa Group in recent times.
He served in a variety of positions on Lufthansa’s executive board, initially being entrusted with the commercial management of the group’s hubs and premium airlines: Lufthansa, Swiss and Austrian.
Hohmeister’s time in Lufthansa Group’s executive team culminated in him leading Commercial Passenger Airlines, with responsibility for the coordination of network planning, revenue management, distribution and sales for all passenger airlines in the group. In that role, he notably helped the group power out of the Covid-19 crisis and aided the purchase of a minority stake in ITA Airways.
Furthermore, Hohmeister enhanced his global reputation as a member of IATA’s board of governors for 10 years through to mid-2019, chairing the audit committee for much of that period, and chaired the boards of various Lufthansa Group carriers.
A private pilot from a family with a father who also worked for Lufthansa, Hohmeister told Airline Business in 2014 that it was “mobility – global mobility – that I find interesting”.
He applied that interest with great skill across a long carrier as an admired airline executive, with a track record of delivering results – and as a tough but fair negotiator.
The full list of the 2025 Airline Strategy Awards winners, by category, were:
Executive Leadership: North America Scott Kirby, United Airlines
Executive Leadership: Europe Luis Gallego, IAG
Executive Leadership: Asia-Pacific Shinichi Inoue, ANA
Executive Leadership: Latin America & Caribbean Pedro Heilbron, Copa Airlines
Executive Leadership: Africa & Middle East Ghaith Al Ghaith, Flydubai
Air-Cargo Leadership Azul Cargo Express
Digital Leadership Ryanair
ESG Leadership JetBlue Airways
The Airline Business Award Harry Hohmeister