Effective March 1 2023, Lufthansa Group appointed Kevin Markette as the new General Manager for the East African region.
- This encompasses Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania.
- Effective June 3, 2023, Lufthansa will expand its current connection from Frankfurt, Germany into Nairobi for the summer flight schedule from five to seven weekly flights.
The Lufthansa Group has re-affirmed its commitment to East Africa by relocating the commercial responsibility for the passenger business back to Kenya.
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Effective March 1 2023, Lufthansa Group appointed Kevin Markette as the new General Manager for the East African region.
This encompasses Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania.
With his position and team permanently based in Nairobi, he will be able to better focus on the needs of regional customers and through a physical presence in the region be closer to the market.
Markette succeeds Dr. André Schulz, who has been appointed Head of Region Middle East, Africa, South Asia and CIS at Lufthansa Cargo.
In his new function Markette reports to Philippe Saeys-Desmedt, Senior Director of Sales Sub-Sahara Africa, Lufthansa Group.
“It is our pleasure to welcome Kevin Markette to this important and dynamic region. We draw upon Kevin’s vast global experience, including that on the African continent to enhance our market position and trustful relationships established with our business partners and customers. Being now located with his team in the East African region, seated in Nairobi, he will quickly forge new relationships in the region”, says Philippe Saeys-Desmedt, Senior Director of Sales Sub-Sahara Africa, Lufthansa Group.
Kevin previously headed several teams within the Sales and Customer Servicing organization of the Lufthansa Group across various cities, including New York, Atlanta, Accra, Dubai, Lagos, Karachi and Johannesburg.
Educated in South Africa and qualified as a Commercial Pilot, he is an experienced airliner having started working for the Lufthansa Group in 2000.
As global travel continues its significant recovery path, the increasing demand for further capacity is felt throughout various markets worldwide. The Lufthansa Group continuously reviews such commercial demands and makes the necessary adjustments for the upcoming summer flight schedule where possible.
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Thanks to positive booking trends, effective from June 3, 2023, Lufthansa will expand its current connection from Frankfurt, Germany into Nairobi for the summer flight schedule from five to seven weekly flights.
The additional flights will arrive from Frankfurt in Nairobi at 20:30 on a daily basis and the returning flight will depart each evening from Nairobi at 22:25 (local time).
Leisure flights to Kenya – Tanzania
At the same time, the four weekly flights between Frankfurt and Mombasa which are operated by the Lufthansa Group’s leisure carrier Eurowings Discover, shall be maintained for the summer flight plan, bringing the total capacity offered between Kenya and Germany to eleven weekly flights.
Important strategic market for the Lufthansa Group Lufthansa Group has a strong commercial focus on leisure destinations in the region and already offers three East African destinations through its Eurowings Discover network: Mombasa, Zanzibar and Kilimanjaro.
“East Africa is undoubtedly one of the most important markets for us on the continent, and our booking figures reflect that the region is particularly popular with holidaymakers from Germany and abroad. Thanks to the vast expansion of our route network on the continent, together with our Group airlines, our customers can now reach their idyllic holiday or business destinations much faster and more directly”, says Kevin Markette, General Manager East Africa, Lufthansa Group.
“Furthermore, by increasing our Lufthansa frequencies between Nairobi and Frankfurt, we are underlining the importance of Kenya for the Lufthansa Group, as well as our long-term commitment to the region. Such positive developments can only be accomplished through strong partnerships with Kenyan corporates who share a common goal and who supported and trusted us throughout the recent challenging years. Together we share the vision that East Africa still has a lot of potential for growth”, Markette adds.
Lufthansa, which is the flag carrier of Germany, is the second-largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried.
Lufthansa is one of the five founding members of Star Alliance, the world’s largest airline alliance, formed in 1997.
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Due to the strong increase in demand for air travel over the course of the year, the Lufthansa Group nearly doubled its revenue to 32.8 billion euros (USD35.7 billion) in the financial year 2022 (previous year: 16.8 billion or USD18.3 billion).
In the financial year 2022, the company generated an Adjusted EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) of 1.5 billion euros (USD1.63 billion) from 1.7 billion euros(USD1.8 billion) and thereby returned to a clearly positive result despite high cost inflation, especially regarding fuel costs.
The Adjusted EBIT margin improved accordingly to 4.6 percent (previous year: -9.9 percent).
