Changes to the sales structure of the Lufthansa Group have resulted in the reshaping of the current sales areas and senior sales positions being appointed.

Since 2014 Heike Birlenbach has held the position of vice president sales Europe Lufthansa Group Airlines.

As of next year, she has been appointed vice president sales, EMEA Lufthansa Group Airlines.

In this position Birlenbach will not only be responsible for all sales and commercial activities in Europe but also in the Middle East and Africa.

With this extended responsibility she will lead the newly merged sales area, EMEA, which, as of 2017 will combine the two former sales areas – Europe and Africa/Middle East.

In this new function she reports to the executive vice president sales Lufthansa Group Airlines, Jens Bischof.

Bischof said: “In the case of Heike Birlenbach, we appointed a very experienced and highly dedicated vice president of our sales organisation, who steered the sales and marketing activities in Europe very successfully.

“Her new role not only involves management of the extended sales area, but ensures the smoother merger of the two sales regions.

“Through this new structure we are repositioning ourselves to be more market-orientated and more efficient.”

The restructuring of the sales areas aims to improve the focus on customer care approach, as well as achieve greater internal efficiencies.

The new sales region will also further align to the geographic structures of many corporate customers, who also cluster their markets in an EMEA
set-up.

This new sales area will be one of four global sales areas, world-wide which do not include the home markets of the Lufthansa Group Airlines in Germany, Austria and Switzerland).

The EMEA incorporates 74 sales markets, stretching from Norway to South Africa, and Morocco to Kazakhstan, all of which will be managed by Heike Birlenbach from the Frankfurt head office