Lufthansa to restructure worldwide distribution, replace financial indicators

Lufthansa's supervisory board approved (03-Dec-2014) a set of "key focuses and actions" in order to ensure the company's "continued success":

• Focus on 2015 as the year of 'New Lufthansa Premium Quality': New first class product to be installed in Lufthansa German Airlines' first class by 1Q2015, with the new business product installed by 2Q2015. Premium economy will be installed on all long-haul aircraft by 3Q2015. The carrier will also take delivery of two A380s and four Boeing 747-8s in 2015, with a 777F to be delivered to Lufthansa Cargo and ten A320s will be added to its short and medium-haul fleet;
• Structural development of Group airlines' worldwide distribution: The Group will realign field sales structures of its airlines from 01-Mar-2015 "in response to the new demands of the world's sales markets." All global field sales will be the responsibility of a single Group-wide entity;
• Key financial indicator of 'earnings after cost of capital' to replace 'cash value added': The new concept will see two new key financial indicators - earnings after cost of capital (EACC) and return on capital employed (ROCE) - replace the key financial indicator of cash value added (CVA) which is currently used in all decision-making processes and for the remuneration of executive staff from 2015 onwards. Lufthansa stated the new indicators are "easier to calculate, which should help anchor value-based management even more firmly within the Lufthansa Group. The new figures show whether the capital employed is achieving sufficiently high results to increase the company's value, and should thus ensure that all corporate decisions are as sustainably-minded as possible."

Deutsche Lufthansa AG chairman and CEO Carsten Spohr said: "2015 will be the year of 'Lufthansa Premium Quality'. Whichever cabin they travel in, our inflight guests will be able to see and feel that Lufthansa is a premium-service airline which is one of the leaders in its field by any global benchmark. We will also be moving the entire Lufthansa Group further forward with our '7 to 1' program." [more - original PR - English/German]