Tom Enders, the long-standing head of Airbus, is leaving Lufthansa’s Supervisory Board. The airline’s Executive Board has nominated Alexis von Hoensbroech as his successor. The former Lufthansa (LH) employee and head of Austrian Airlines is CEO of the Calgary, Alberta-based Canadian airline, WestJet (WS), since 15FEB22.
The forthcoming exit of ‘Major Tom’ (as friends call him because of his former military career as a major in the German army), from the airline’s Supervisory Board, comes as a surprise. He stated that he would resign from his post “at his own request” come 06MAY25. On that day, the airline’s shareholders’ meeting will take place. His stepping down from the Supervisory Board was not apparent until now, at least not to outsiders. Especially as his mandate would have run until 2027, and 66-year-old Enders was considered the most promising candidate to succeed Lufthansa Supervisory Board Chairman, Karl-Ludwig Kley (73).
Turning to new priorities
Although Enders did not give any reasons for his move, insiders assume that he will increasingly focus his activities on the defense sector. Since 2022, he has been a board member of the software company, Helsing, which produces armaments and develops their use in combat based on artificial intelligence, such as drones to defend Ukraine against Russian attacks. In his 19 years at Airbus, where Enders was CEO until 2019, he merged and significantly expanded the military division Airbus Defense and Space, among other industrial initiatives.
An astrophysicist succeeds Enders
His successor on the Lufthansa Supervisory Board will be Alexis Graf von und zu Hoensbroech. The candidate, who comes from an aristocratic family, is well known within the Group, where he had long been a board member of Lufthansa Cargo and subsequently CEO of Group subsidiary, Austrian Airlines. Before joining WestJet, the scientifically certified astrophysicist was already being touted internally at Lufthansa as a potential successor to CEO, Carsten Spohr. However, due to the small age difference – Spohr is 59 years old, von Hoensbroech 54 – his prospects for the top job at the Lufthansa Group are likely to be rather slim if he should even aspire to the job.
His forthcoming appointment to the Supervisory Board is not an indication of a possible financial participation by Lufthansa in WestJet. There had been speculation about this after WestJet and Lufthansa Technik agreed on a multi-billion-euro contract for the maintenance of aircraft engines. The 15-year, multi-billion-euro deal signed in mid-FEB25, is the largest in WestJet’s 30-year history. The project is supported by the provincial government of Alberta and the central government in Ottawa.
No further ties between LH and WS
However, the technical cooperation is not the prelude to commercial cooperation or even financial participation of Lufthansa in WestJet. As CEO Spohr emphasized on several occasions, the crane airline will strengthen its position not only through organic growth and special partnerships (Air Baltic), but above all through investments and takeovers in Europe. This way, it secures its position as a dominant player in its home market alongside the SkyTeam alliance (orchestrated by Air France/KLM) and the oneworld club (headed by IAG [BA, IB]). According to Spohr, Lufthansa will not participate in airlines headquartered outside of Europe.
