Lufthansa CFO To Leave For Pharma Firm

Lufthansa's chief financial officer, Simone Menne, will leave the airline at the end of August to join Germany's second-largest drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim.

Her departure comes at a time when Lufthansa is grappling with cost challenges and expanding budget unit Eurowings to offer cheaper tickets and defend routes against the likes of Ryanair and easyJet.

Lufthansa shares fell as investors worried the company's cost-cutting plans could be thrown off course.

CFO for the last four years, Menne has maintained Lufthansa's investment grade credit rating, helped steer the group to record profit and last month said the group had reached a turning point on bringing down unit costs excluding the price of fuel and currency.

Credit Suisse analysts said her departure would deal a blow to the confidence in the airline's cost-cutting efforts, also highlighting how Lufthansa has seen other senior executives depart during periods of restructuring, such as former chief executive Christoph Franz to Roche in 2013 and CFO Stephan Gemkow to Haniel in 2012.

Analysts also cited weak May traffic figures as a concern for the carrier, with passenger traffic down 2 percent and its planes less full.

Menne, the first female CFO at a German blue-chip company and who had been with Lufthansa since 1989, has previously spoken of her ambition to become chief executive of a Dax 30 company.