BERLIN (Reuters) - Shareholders in Lufthansa aired their concerns to management at the annual general meeting on Tuesday, troubled by the impact of a wave of strikes on profit and service standards as well as a boardroom overhaul that unsettled investors.
One top concern was the image of core brand Lufthansa Airlines as a premium provider, following flight cancellations forced by the industrial action as well as operational problems.
The board, led by CEO Carsten Spohr, must do more to prevent "service chaos" in future, warned Hendrik Schmidt, a corporate governance specialist at Deutsche Bank (ETR:DBKGn) subsidiary DWS, Lufthansa's third-largest shareholder with just under 1.5%.
"Lufthansa doesn't just need customers, it needs satisfied customers," he said.
Shareholders were caught off guard in February when the company announced an exodus of executives, including former CFO Remco Steenbergen.
"The permanent crisis was also present in the board," said Ingo Speich, head of sustainability at Deka.
Lufthansa announced the appointment of Till Streichert as new chief financial officer on the eve of the AGM, with his three-year term set to start mid-September.
Lufthansa took a 350 million euro ($376.85 million) hit from costly strike action during the first quarter, forcing it to revise down its earnings forecast for the full year.
The airline now expects adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of 2.2 billion euros in 2024.
($1 = 0.9288 euros)