Despite the crisis in the Lufthansa branch: Swiss managers are giving themselves bonuses – economy

It is the worst crisis in the aviation sector: thousands of people are losing their jobs, tens of thousands are working short-term, most of the planes are on the ground. But yet …

The managers of Lufthansa’s Swiss branch granted themselves huge bonuses, because 2019 was still going so well.

This was reported by the Swiss news site “20 minutes”.

According to this, three members of management have had the money paid (in an amount as yet unknown) – for the time being this year they are giving up on special payments or salary increases.

The procedure also had a bitter aftertaste as parent company Lufthansa sent a fire letter to employees shortly after payment. He says that in addition to flight operations, the administration will again be shut down massively in the winter to cut costs.

“After a summer that gave us all cause for hope, we are now back in a situation that amounts to a block in terms of effect,” said a statement from the group’s board of directors. “It is therefore essential to further close the company operations in winter 2020/21 and to put as many areas as possible into ‘winter mode’ from mid-December.”

Meanwhile, with half a million euros, the airline group loses only half of its money per hour since the start of the crisis. “Nothing has changed in the drama of the situation,” CEO Carsten Spohr and his colleagues wrote to employees at the start of the winter flight program.

Last week Lufthansa announced that it would offer a maximum of 25% of the previous year’s flight capacity instead of the 50% originally planned. Because with the increase in the number of infections in Europe and America, leading to travel restrictions and the requirement of quarantine, demand plummets again.

Leading airline Lufthansa and its subsidiaries Eurowings, Swiss, Austrian and Brussels Airlines will therefore again decommission 125 aircraft that were supposed to take off in the winter. Management estimates that the number of passengers will remain more than 80% lower than the previous year’s figure.

Most administrative clerks will be fully engaged in part-time work until the end of February, similar to spring, the letter reads. The Lufthansa LAC headquarters at Frankfurt airport will be closed except for some workplaces, other offices will be rented. All office space needs to be reduced to 30 percent.

▶ ︎ By the way: Thomas Klühr, the outgoing Swiss boss, forgoes his bonus for the time being, at least until the group has repaid the crisis loan to the federal government.