German publication Der Spiegel ran a fascinating story about Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr, whereby a reporter shadowed Spohr for a day, while he traveled, worked at Lufthansa Group headquarters, etc. The gist of the story is essentially that shareholders like Spohr, while customers don’t.
The story provides some interesting insights into Spohr’s personality, and has one detail that surprised me most.
Carsten Spohr travels with a bodyguard
In this story, a reporter flew with Spohr, as he traveled from his home in Munich to Lufthansa Group headquarters in Frankfurt on a Friday morning. There’s one detail that stands out the most there, as flagged by SMK77:
- Spohr boarded the plane last and took seat 6D, while his bodyguard was already seated across the aisle in seat 6C, despite not having been seen before
- Upon arrival in Frankfurt, while passengers took a bus to the terminal, Spohr was instead driven in a private van, and his bodyguard sat in the front of the van
While the story goes into great detail about the day, that’s the only mention of the bodyguard. I can’t help but find that to be quite surprising, since I’ve never otherwise heard of an airline CEO having a bodyguard. CEOs of airlines (and airline groups) are of course running huge, multi-billion dollar businesses, and get a lot of executive perks. However, I never thought that a bodyguard would be among those.
It’s possible I’m just not familiar with this, though. Does anyone know of other airline CEOs who have bodyguards? If so, are they with them 24/7, any time when they’re in public, just when they travel, or what?
Is Spohr worried about customers or staff confronting him in an unpleasant way? Does he intentionally fly with a bodyguard (which seems odd, in the sterile area of an airport), or does the bodyguard just travel with him between his home in Munich and his office in Frankfurt, and therefore flies with him?
In late 2023, there was a story of how a 21-year-old Lufthansa fanboy reportedly asked for a selfie with Spohr on a flight, and ended up getting accused of spying on the CEO. In something that sounds like it’s straight out of a movie, Lufthansa security personnel reportedly requested to meet this guy in a private apartment, and his cell phone was even confiscated during the meeting. I can’t help but wonder if Spohr having a bodyguard relates to this incident, or what.
Some interesting observations about Spohr
Personally I’m not a huge Spohr fan. I’ve never met the guy, but from observing the industry and based on what I’ve heard:
- He has never struck me as being very likable or approachable
- Spohr has a complete lack of focus on passenger experience, and has done a horrible job with implementing new products, like the Allegris cabins
- Spohr’s primary skills seem to be setting up new subsidiaries to reduce labor costs whenever possible, and exerting his influence to keep the German aviation landscape uncompetitive (by blocking some Gulf carrier expansion, keeping airport fees high to deter ultra low cost carriers, etc.)
In fairness to Spohr, whether or not I think he’s likable is of no consequence to him, and shouldn’t be. It goes without saying that the main job of an airline CEO is to deliver value for stakeholders.
To look at the European aviation industry, I just think it’s worth contrasting Spohr and Air France-KLM CEO Ben Smith, who has done exactly the opposite of Spohr — Air France and KLM are investing in their products with a sense of urgency, and one of Smith’s first orders of business at the airline was to eliminate Air France’s low cost subsidiary, and improve labor relations.
Anyway, what does this story conclude about Spohr? The following observations about Spohr stood out most to me:
- Spohr comes across as very confident, and tries to connect with people one-on-one, including frontline employees
- Spohr loves being the center of attention, and is happiest when he’s in the spotlight
- While in a team meeting about improving Lufthansa’s app, Spohr understandably criticizes it and says it’s not competitive, and the reporter concludes that “Spohr tells it as if he had nothing to do with it,” “as if he were a normal Lufthansa customer and not the top boss”
- The story finishes by talking about how Spohr is a big Bond fan, and when he’s asked about his favorite Bond character, he says “Bond is bigger than the actor in question, and that is of course also the case with Lufthansa and its boss,” and with that the writer concludes “for the first time He almost sounds a little humble that day”
Ouch…
Bottom line
A German reporter followed Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr for the day, and made some very interesting observations about him. They largely line up with what I would have expected, which is also why I’m surprised he’d want to be profiled in this way.
To me, the most surprising observation was that Spohr travels with a bodyguard. It’s possible that this is quite common in the industry and I’ve just never heard of it, though it came as a surprise to me.
What do you make of these Spohr observations?
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