SWISS is to enlarge its Management Board. With effect from 1 May 2024, the presently three-member top management body will be expanded with the addition of a Chief Operating Officer. The enlargement is intended to give greater weighting to the company’s core activity. Oliver Buchhofer, who is presently Head of Operations, has been appointed to the new COO position. SWISS has also appointed a new Chief Financial Officer. Dennis Weber, who is presently Head of Investor Relations at Lufthansa Group, will assume his new SWISS CFO duties on 1 May 2024. He succeeds Markus Binkert, who will leave the company at the end of May.
Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) will have a Chief Operating Officer (COO) from 1 May 2024. The holder of the new COO position will also be a member of the SWISS Management Board, which will thus consist of four persons: the CEO, the Chief Financial Officer, the Chief Commercial Officer and the COO.
“If we aim and aspire to be Europe’s leading premium airline, we must further strengthen our core activity,” says CEO Dieter Vranckx of the planned Management Board expansion. “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.”
“What we have seen since the corona crisis,” CEO Vranckx continues, “is that the operational challenges remain substantial – challenges such as staffing shortages at our system partners, spares shortages owing to supply chain bottlenecks and the present strike actions in neighbouring countries. We continue to put a firm focus on maintaining the stability of our flight operations; and we are putting an extra emphasis now on our punctuality, too. So it makes sound sense to strengthen our Management Board as well on the operational front.”
Oliver Buchhofer named new Chief Operating Officer
SWISS has appointed Oliver Buchhofer to serve as its new Chief Operating Officer. He will assume his new duties – and thus also his position on the SWISS Management Board – on 1 May 2024. Buchhofer, who is 47 and a Swiss national, presently serves as Head of Operations and a member of the Extended Management Board. In his new COO capacity, Buchhofer will be responsible for ensuring the company’s safe, secure and seamless operations. His duties in doing so will extend to the strategic planning, coordination and organization of such areas as the cockpit and cabin crew corps, training, MRO (maintenance, repair & overhaul) and ground services.
Prior to his present Head of Operations position, Oliver Buchhofer was SWISS’s Head of Flight Operations, in overall charge of the company’s 1,400-strong cockpit crew corps. Before joining SWISS in 2007, he served as a pilot at Austrian Airlines and Tyrolean Airways. He continues to fly for SWISS as a captain on the Airbus A330. Oliver Buchhofer holds a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Zurich. “With his many years of flight deck service, Oliver Buchhofer is thoroughly familiar with our flight operations, and also brings extremely broad experience in various further areas of our operations to his new COO position,” says SWISS CEO Dieter Vranckx. “I have worked very closely with Oliver Buchhofer over the past few years; and I’m convinced that, with all his expertise, he will help give our core operating activity the appropriate weighting on our Management Board. I also offer him my warmest congratulations on his new appointment.”
Dennis Weber named new CFO
SWISS has also appointed a new Chief Financial Officer. Dennis Weber will succeed Markus Binkert as SWISS CFO on 1 May 2024. Weber, who is 44 and a German national, has been Head of Investor Relations at Lufthansa Group since 2018, in overall charge of all the capital market communications of the Lufthansa Group. After studying business administration in Bamberg (Germany) and Sydney (Australia), Dennis Weber began his professional career at Adidas AG. Prior to joining the Lufthansa Group, he also served as Head of Investor Relations at Hugo Boss AG from 2010 to 2018. “I am delighted with this appointment. By filling these two positions in a timely manner, we are ensuring continuity at the top of SWISS. The appointment of Dennis Weber broadens the diversity and enriches the skills and the expertise on our Management Board,” says CEO Dieter Vranckx. “With his professional background, Dennis Weber will bring a valuable new perspective, and is an ideal complement to our top management team. I wish him the best of starts in his new SWISS capacity.”