Lufthansa Group is enhancing its commercial and business unit with an emphasis on its commitment to Africa with a higher ranked management level under establishment in Johannesburg.
René Koinzack has been appointed Senior Director Sales for Southern & East Africa, Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea at Lufthansa Group Airlines.
He has already started his new role this month, and will steer and further develop the commercial and sales activities for all Lufthansa Group Airlines (Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Discover Airlines, Edelweiss, Eurowings, Lufthansa and SWISS) within his newly allocated sales region which comprises 24 countries.
These countries were formerly steered out of Brussels along with all remaining Sub-Saharan markets. The airline group in Europe wants to get closer to its customers in these growing and dynamic African markets.
Koinzack will report to Heinrich Lange, Vice President Sales EMEA Lufthansa Group Airlines, who said the appointment of one of the group’s most experienced sales managers was done to actively strengthen the group’s position and commercial offer in the region. “We build upon his valuable experience in various sales markets for him to further develop a trustful relationship, already established with our business partners and customers,” says Lange.
Koinzack studied Tourism Management at the University of Applied Science in Wernigerode and graduated in 2004. Immediately after, he joined the Lufthansa Group in February 2004 in Moscow as Marketing Manager for Russia. Most recently, since 2021, he has been GM for Poland and Czech Republic for the group, based in Warsaw.
In all his sales markets, Koinzack will lead an established local sales management team for Lufthansa Group Airlines:
-
Southern Africa (Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Réunion, Seychelles, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe) is steered by Matthias Lefèvre based in Johannesburg.
-
East Africa (Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda) is steered by Kevin Markette based in Nairobi.
-
Nigeria and Equatorial Guinea is steered by Zied Gueblaoui based in Lagos.
