Canada And Canadian Agents Key For Lufthansa Group

Sometimes a new executive inherits a job with a huge battle on her or his hands. Lucky for Frank Naeve, his company appears to be on solid ground.

Naeve became Vice President of Sales, The Americas, Lufthansa Group on May 1 of this year. He and other top Lufthansa officials made a courtesy call on the Toronto trade media on Thursday, chatting about the airline’s impressive service credentials, remarkable new aircraft orders and their work with travel agents.

“We have a very strong presence in Canada,” Naeve told journalists over breakfast at the Chelsea Hotel Toronto. “We have 1,700 employees in Canada, and we look forward to continued success in this country.”

Naeve said the Lufthansa Group currently operates flights in and out of Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver, with direct flights to Frankfurt, Munich, Brussels, Vienna and Zurich. More Canadian hubs could be added, but he said there are no plans to announce at this time.

Naeve told reporters that the Lufthansa Group has 221 new planes on order, with a remarkable price tag of $43 billion USD. Included in that allotment are new 787 Dreamliners, new Airbus A-350’s and new Boeing 777 planes that should be used on Canadian routes to replace aging 747’s.

Hans DeHaan, Senior Director Canada for Lufthansa Group, said Lufthansa Group airlines work closely with the travel trade; meeting with account managers and providing seminars for agents to keep them up to date on the company’s various airlines and operations.

“We do these things on an ongoing basis, and we’ll definitely continue that,” he said.

Tal Muscal, the Lufthansa Group Director of Group Communications, The Americas, said Lufthansa German Airlines is the only five-stair airline (as voted by Skytrax) in the western hemisphere. But he said all Lufthansa Group airlines have special treats for customers. Guests at the front of the plane on Austrian airlines can sample 10 types of coffee, while business fliers on Brussels Airlines have eight types of Belgian beer to choose from.

Officials said Lufthansa group airlines are constantly updating their in-flight entertainment systems to provide a wide array of movies and TV shows.

“You can watch old westerns, classic James Bond films and the latest Hollywood movies,” DeHaan said. “You might even want your flight to be a little longer so you can watch that third movie.”

Naeve said the Lufthansa Group doesn’t own any Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, and was therefore unaffected by the recent shutdown following two fatal accidents.

Lufthansa Group representatives said the company’s airlines are dedicated to making air travel more sustainable by drastically reducing fuel consumption, using electric vehicles at airports and implementing better environmental practices at Lufthansa offices.

Last month the company launched help alliance Americas, a program based on their successful help alliance program, which was launched 20 years ago by Lufthansa Group employees. The alliance offers “assistance, aid and guidance to those in need, in order for them to achieve self-help through local development projects, focused on education, work and income.”

Lufthansa Group officials Based at the company’s U.S. headquarters outside New York City, Naeve is responsible for the Group’s passenger airline organization in North and South America, spearheading sales in what is the Lufthansa Group’s most important international region outside the European home markets. He’s charged with managing the commercial cooperation that the Lufthansa Group passenger airlines have with Air Canada and United Airlines under the transatlantic Joint Venture agreement, the world’s leading airline collaboration of its type. In fact, he was off on Thursday to meet with his new Air Canada colleagues.

In The Americas region, the Lufthansa Group Passenger Airlines currently operates a robust network of over 670 weekly frequencies to 25 destinations in the U.S. and Canada and 72 weekly frequencies to 11 destinations in nine Central & South American countries. Their summer timetable has 61 frequencies across Canada.

The Lufthansa Group is made up of Lufthansa German Airlines, Austrian Airlines. SWISS, Brussels Airlines and Eurowings. They also operate Edelweiss Air, a subsidiary of SWISS.

Naeve has had a varied career, mostly in Lufthansa Cargo. In total, he has spent 30 years working for the Lufthansa Group in Germany, China and Singapore.