Friday, September 23rd, 2016 — As of October 1, Christina Foerster will be the new Chief Commercial Officer for Brussels Airlines. She will be a member of the Management Board. Lars Redeligx did a great job of repositioning the business model, market approach, and brand of Brussels Airlines Flight over the past three and a half years. Christina will report directly to CEO Bernard Gustin. Lars will be the LSG Group's Chief Commercial Officer and Spokesman for Europe.

Brussels Airlines has spent the last three and a half years doing a thorough review of its business model, commercial strategy, and brand positioning in order to compete with the growing number of low-cost airlines. New travel products in Europe, a new E-Commerce platform, the launch of the Loop loyalty programme, new service concepts like "The Loft," and a rebranding with a clear focus on customer service and attractive prices, among other things, have made the leading Belgian airline a more competitive and dynamic company. Together with his teams, CCO Lars Redeligx pushed commercial key performance indicators like turnover, passenger growth, and load factor to new heights.

Lars has made a big difference in repositioning Brussels Airlines. His ability to think outside the box and his constant drive to improve business performance and focus on customers have changed the way we do business. He was also able to strengthen our role as ambassadors for Belgium. This was done not only through our special liveries (Rackham, Magritte, and Trident), but also through the partnerships he built with Belgian companies and organisations. We thank him for all he has done and wish him the best as he moves on to his new job with the LSG Group.

Christina Foerster, who is 45 years old, is currently the Senior Vice President of Network and Partner Management for Hub Airlines at Lufthansa. On October 1, she will start working for Brussels Airlines as the head of its commercial departments.

After getting a master's degree in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania's Warton School in 1999, Christina started working as a consultant for The Boston Consulting Group. She started working at Deutsche Lufthansa AG in October 2002 as a Project Manager for Corporate Strategy. In 2005, she was promoted to General Manager of Product Management for Intercontinental. In this job, she was in charge of making improvements to Lufthansa's in-flight products for long-haul flights. In 2011, she was made Vice President of Network and Fleet Development, where she focused on the strategic development of the Lufthansa Group fleet and the global network of Lufthansa Passenger Airlines. Two years later, in 2014, she was named Senior Vice President of Network, Group, and Alliance Development at the Lufthansa Group. Since January, she has been in charge of Network and Partner Management for Lufthansa, Swiss, and Austrian Airlines, reporting directly to the Lufthansa Group Executive Board Member for Hub Management.

We have known Christina for a long time and have worked with her a lot on things like networks, alliances, and fleet. We're really looking forward to having her join the Brussels Airlines Management Board. She is a manager with a lot of experience in the airline and tourism industries. She has an open mind and is very professional. With her analytical skills and international experience, she will help us improve our competitiveness in a market that is very difficult to work in.