Swiss has named a new chief financial officer and is adding a chief operating officer to its management board.
The Zurich-based carrier said on 5 March that the expansion of the top executive body is “intended to give greater weighting to the company’s core activity”.
Dennis Weber, currently head of investor relations at Lufthansa Group, will rise to the CFO post on 1 May, succeeding Markus Binkert, who is leaving the company at the end of that month.
The newly-created COO role will be filled, also at the beginning of May, by Oliver Buchhofer, who is currently head of operations at Swiss as well as an Airbus A330 captain.
“If we aim and aspire to be Europe’s leading premium airline, we must further strengthen our core activity,” says outgoing chief executive Dieter Vranckx. “Our daily operations are the heart of our company, and the stability of these is crucial to our customers. So we need to give these operations greater weighting within our overall executive management.”
Vranckx, who will step down as Swiss chief executive in July to take up a new role at Lufthansa Group, adds that since the Covid-19 crisis, “operational challenges remain substantial”. Staffing shortages, supply chain issues and strikes in neighbouring countries are just a few of them.
Future CFO Weber, who has been head of Lufthansa’s investor relations since 2018, has a degree in business administration. He began his professional career at Adidas AG and also served as head of investor relations at Hugo Boss.
Buchhofer will be responsible for ensuring the company’s operations, including strategic planning, coordination and organisation of cockpit and cabin crew, training, MRO (maintenance, repair & overhaul) and ground services. Prior to his current role, he was a pilot at Austrian and Tyrolean Airways and continues to fly for Swiss, the company says. He holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Zurich.
