Peter Gerber steps down as CEO of Brussels Airlines with immediate effect and is also leaving parent company Lufthansa Group. The airline announced that former CEO Christina Foerster will take over in ad interim.

Gerber will start as CEO of German airline Condor on 1 February 2024, the latter announced. That 58-year-old Gerber is leaving Lufthansa is also due to a mandatory retirement rule for top executives in the group. At the age of 60, all have to stop in executive positions within the Lufthansa Group.

Downsizing plan brought to fruition

German Peter Gerber has been at the helm of Brussels Airlines for less than two years (since March 2021) and has worked for the Lufthansa Group since 1992. In addition to being CEO of Brussels Airlines, Gerber was also Chief Representative for European Affairs at Lufthansa Group. As Condor is a direct competitor of Lufthansa, Gerber must immediately resign from his current position.

At Brussels Airlines, Gerber will remain best known as the man who completed the Reboot Plus transformation program after the corona health crisis, cutting a quarter of staff, ten aircraft, and dozens of destinations. Brussels Airlines made record profits in the third quarter of last year.

Leisure airline

Condor, with a fleet of more than 50 aircraft and Frankfurt Airport as its main base, flies to 126 destinations worldwide. It is a leisure airline that mainly flies to popular holiday destinations such as the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands.

The German airline was severely weakened in 2019 by the bankruptcy of its parent company Thomas Cook. However, in 2021, it still received 525,3 million euros in state aid to cushion the corona crisis’s impact and support restructuring.

At Condor, Gerber succeeds retiring top executive Ralf Teckentrup, who is leaving. The airline is now mainly in British hands as the British investment company Attestor Capital bought a majority stake of 51% in the company in 2021. It just has started to renew its entire long-haul fleet.

CEO carousel

“A long-term successor to Peter Gerber will be announced as soon as possible,” a Brussels Airlines press release reads. As a result, Gerber’s compatriot Christina Foerster will temporarily return to take charge of Brussels Airlines. Foerster was already CEO of the airline from 2018 to 2020 and is a member of Lufthansa’s executive board.

In recent years, Brussels Airlines has regularly changed CEOs. Five years ago, in early 2018, Bernard Gustin was still leading the airline. In April of that year, Foerster became CEO. Dieter Vranckx then succeeded her in early 2020. The Belgian, in turn, made way for Gerber just over a year later. Vranckx is now CEO of Swiss, another Lufthansa Group airline.