Jens Ritter has been Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Lufthansa Airlines since 1 April 2022.
After studying aerospace engineering in Munich and completing his training as an Airbus A320 pilot at Lufthansa's commercial pilot school in Bremen, Jens Ritter began his flying career in 2000. In 2008, he switched to the Airbus A330/340 as a long-haul pilot. In 2014, he qualified as a captain on the Airbus A320 at Germanwings and to this day is employed as such at Lufthansa Airlines.
Since 2005, Jens Ritter has held various management positions at the Lufthansa Group. Among those he has led Flight Operations & Fuel Efficiency at Lufthansa, and also introduced of the paperless cockpit at Lufthansa. In 2014, he took over as head of Operations Efficiency & Strategy at the airline. In parallel, he led a project at the Lufthansa Group to standardize Group-wide flight operations processes. Between 2016 and 2020, Jens Ritter was responsible for the operations of Austrian Airlines as Accountable Manager. As Chief Operating Officer (COO), he was part of the extended Executive Board of Austrian Airlines. From 2018, he also led the digitalization of the entire Lufthansa Group flight operations as Process Owner Flight Ops Digitalization & Efficiency. In April 2021, Jens Ritter was appointed to the Executive Board of Eurowings as Chief Operating Officer (COO). One year later, he joined the Executive Board of Lufthansa Airlines, which he has since led as Chief Executive Officer.
Jens Ritter, born in Rüsselsheim (Germany) in 1973, is married and father of three children.
As of: 01 February 2023