Brussels CEO Peter Gerber becomes the new Condor boss

Frankfurt The personnel details were prepared for weeks, but in the end things got hectic. The industry portal “Aerotelegraph” rushed forward on Tuesday with the information that Peter Gerber is moving from the Lufthansa subsidiary Brussels Airlines to the holiday airline Condor.

Shortly thereafter, the companies confirmed: Gerber is resigning from his position at Brussels with immediate effect and is succeeding long-standing boss Ralf Teckentrup at Condor, whose contract expires at the end of the year. With Gerber, a Lufthansa manager is again taking over the management of the much smaller leisure airline. Teckentrup also came from Europe’s largest airline group.

Condor and Lufthansa – that is the story of a long and not always easy relationship. The holiday airline once belonged to the aviation group, but now both are fighting over the same clientele.

Lufthansa is making direct competition to Condor with the relatively new Eurowings Discover platform. It is primarily private travelers who are driving the industry’s recovery after the pandemic. With Eurowings Discover, the Lufthansa management wants to secure a piece of this market – partly on the routes that Condor has been serving for years.

A dispute over the feeder flights for these connections has been smoldering for months, and Condor boss Teckentrup has even turned on the cartel guards. In the future, Gerber will have to continue this fight against his former employer. Perhaps it will also herald a new era of relaxation and cooperation between the two companies.

In any case, he still has time to prepare for this new task. The 58-year-old will not take over at Condor until February next year. There is a non-competition clause in Lufthansa’s managerial contracts that prohibits a direct switch to a rival for twelve months.

Condor and Lufthansa

Gerber goes to the competing airline Condor, which wants to challenge Lufthansa customers in the low-cost segment.

(Photo: imago images/Jan Huebner)

Lufthansa has therefore relieved Gerber of his position with immediate effect. Board member Christina Foerster will now temporarily take over the management of Brussels until the successor is settled. Foerster previously held operational responsibility for the airline. From 2016 she initially worked as Chief Commercial Officer, from 2018 to 2020 as CEO.

It is difficult to say to what extent Gerber can deal with Condor before he takes office because of this non-competition clause. It is also not completely impossible that Lufthansa will shorten the blocking period.

In any case, the new job for the passionate chess player will not be easy. He inherits a CEO who has had a strong influence on Condor. Teckentrup led the airline through several crises – first came the bankruptcy of the former parent company Thomas Cook, then the failed sale to the Polish parent company of the airline Lot, and finally the consequences of the pandemic, when air traffic was grounded, had to be dealt with.

>> Read about this: Takeover of ITA: Investors doubt Lufthansa’s plans

Only after the takeover by the financial investor Attestor did Condor regain some security. Now, after the many hardships of the past few years, the workforce is reporting back with wishes for better conditions.

Employee representatives are also concerned because the owner Attestor recently founded a new holiday airline in Estonia, Marabu. The pilot association Vereinigung Cockpit fears that this company could be used to circumvent German working conditions and collective agreements.

The airline has also started modernizing the entire fleet. That is an enormous feat. The aircraft have to be integrated into the fleet and flight operations, pilots have to be trained and the maintenance of the jets has to be carried out.

Gerber has a lot of experience in dealing with employee representatives

But everyone in the industry agrees: Gerber has the necessary tools for this. A Lufthansa insider is convinced that he is the right person for this job. Gerber began his career in the group in 1992. In his position as head of human resources in the passage – as the division responsible for passenger business was called at the time – in 2012 he conducted extremely difficult collective bargaining talks with the cabin crew union.

He later took over the finance and human resources department at the freight subsidiary Lufthansa Cargo, becoming CEO there in May 2014. Then we went to Brussels in 2021. At Condor, we rely on precisely this experience. “Peter Gerber is taking on the major task of further promoting the transformation of Condor,” said Supervisory Board Chairman Friedrich Andreae on Tuesday.

The manager has made a name for himself in one of his stations. “He’s someone who tends to hold himself back, is always kind and can listen. But he knows exactly what he wants and then knows how to get it through,” says a Lufthansa executive who wishes to remain anonymous.

The fact that Gerber is now going to Condor is also explained in Lufthansa circles by the fact that he was dissatisfied with his job at Brussels. The success of Lufthansa Cargo is also his credit, they say. Gerber may have expected more with a view to his career in the group, company insiders suspect. There are no corresponding statements from Gerber himself.

More: Condor owner Attestor founds new holiday airline

source site-18