Jens Ritter will join the management of Eurowings as chief operating officer on April 1st.

He is currently chief operating officer and part of the extended management board at Austrian Airlines.

Ritter will succeed Michael Knitter, who will leave the German airline at the end of March.

Together with Jens Bischof, chief executive, and Frank Bauer, head of finance, Ritter will form a three-member Eurowings management board.

“We are deeply indebted to Michael Knitter,” said Christina Foerster, chairwoman of the Eurowings supervisory board.

“For more than five years Michael Knitter has been standing for flying excellence, continuity and consistency in times of great change at Eurowings.

“Knitter has set up the flight operations organisation in recent years in such a way that Eurowings is now regularly one of the most punctual airlines in Europe.”

Ritter already has valuable experience as chief operating officer of the Lufthansa subsidiary Austrian Airlines.

He started his flying career in 2000 with Lufthansa after studying aerospace in Munich and training as an Airbus A320 pilot at the Bremen Commercial Aviation School.

In 2008, he switched to the Airbus A330/340 as a long-haul pilot, and in 2014 he trained at Germanwings to become a captain on the Airbus A320.