Lufthansa Cargo is restructuring its operations. The sales regions of North and South America will be combined into a single American region, while Eastern and Northern Europe will be combined with Western Europe to form a single European region.
The previous region of the Middle East and Africa will be expanded to include South Asian and CIS markets. Austria and Switzerland will now be included in the German region. South Asia will no longer be a part of the Asia region as previously defined. The changes are intended to “enhance the focus on the customer, simplify the structure to increase speed to market, and support Lufthansa Cargo’s new phase of growth.”
Several personnel changes accompany the new regional arrangement. Stephanie Abeler, who is based in Chicago and was previously the head of sales for the Midwest US, is now in charge of the newly formed America region. Oliver von Götz is the new head of Region Europe LCAG at Lufthansa Cargo. Götz was previously the head of corporate airline strategy and business development at Lufthansa Airlines. André Schulz, who was previously general manager of Southern and East Africa at Deutsche Lufthansa in Johannesburg, will lead the new Middle East, Africa, South Asia, and CIS regions.
Achim Martinka, who has led Lufthansa Cargo’s German sales as vice president of Germany since the summer of 2019, has expanded his responsibilities to include Austria and Switzerland, as well as the newly formed DACH sales region. Except for Schulz’s future management of the South Asia market region, the Asia Pacific region remains unchanged under the leadership of J. Florian Pfaff from Singapore. Digital Sales, previously defined as a head office function, is now defined as a customer-facing function led by Marcel Kling. All sales region and digital sales managers will report to Ashwin Bhat, Lufthansa Cargo’s chief commercial officer.
“Region mergers and new appointments are critical adjustments for us to combine our strengths, exploit synergies, and thus respond even better to market trends,” Baht said. “We are simplifying our process structures internally while remaining a strong partner for our customers externally.” “With their experience and diverse knowledge, I am confident we will continue to enrich Lufthansa Cargo’s leadership in the air cargo market in the coming years.”
