The chief executive of German flag carrier Lufthansa has worked a day in the life of a flight attendant after he became a supernumerary or ‘additional crew member’ on a recent flight to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Describing his experience as a member of cabin crew, Jens Ritter said he went into flight thinking that his extensive experience as a pilot already gave him a good understanding of what flight attendants do… how wrong he was.
“I have been working for the Lufthansa Group for many years. But I have never had the opportunity to work as part of the cabin crew. And honestly, that was so interesting and also challenging,” Ritter said.
“I was amazed by how much there is to organize, especially, if something doesn’t go as planned – for example, the meals offered on the menu cards were not exactly the meals loaded on board.”
Jens Ritter has been the CEO of Lufthansa Airlines since April 2022, but he started off his career as an Airbus A320 pilot in Munich 23 years ago. Ritter moved to the larger Airbus A330 and A340 models in 2008 before taking his command on the A320 at low-cost subsidiary Germanwings in 2014.
Since 2005, Ritter has also held a number of management roles, starting off at Lufthansa Airlines before taking on bigger jobs at Austrian Airlines and Eurowings, where he was chief operating officer before being promoted to CEO of Lufthansa.
Ritter was working with cabin crew on an Airbus A330 from Frankfurt to Riyadh, which then continued onto Bahrain.
“I used to fly as a pilot and so I thought I knew about the challenges a flight during the night entails. But to be present and attentive and charming – when the biological clock just tells you to sleep – was something entirely different,” Ritter continued.
“It was so interesting to address the guests’ wishes individually, to deal with the different energy everyone has.”
On the outbound flight, the 50-year-old CEO helped the cabin crew in the Business Class cabin, but on the return night flight home, Ritter says he got to experience working in the Economy cabin for the first time.
“I was astonished how much I learned in these few hours. Deciding things in the office will be different after really feeling the decisions on board. Thank you to the amazing crew, the lovely guests and everyone involved for making this experience possible,” Ritter said in his post.
Earlier this month, it was revealed that Lufthansa was offering flight attendants big bonuses to work on their days off and give up their holidays in order to keep the airline flying during the busy summer months.
Lufthansa has largely avoided the travel chaos that engulfed much of the aviation industry last year, but the airline is still operating with fewer cabin staff than it should be.
On the flights that Ritter was working on, the flight attendants were fortunate enough to have an additional crew member on duty with them. The airline is, however, compensating flight attendants for situations where flights are leaving with fewer than normal crew members due to staff shortages.
