Strategy

ESRS 2 SBM-2 – Interests and views of stakeholders

The Lufthansa Group places great emphasis on an open, continuous and trusting dialogue with its internal and external stakeholder groups, and actively seeks exchanges with them through a range of different dialogue formats. In the hybrid discussion series “Offen gesagt” (“frankly speaking”), Carsten Spohr, Chairman of the Executive Board, informs all employees of the Lufthansa Group several times a year about current developments within the Group. He also answers questions raised by employees either in person or submitted online. Another virtual information format is “Let’s Talk”, in which individual members of the Group Executive Board report on current developments in their respective areas of responsibility and respond to questions from the workforce. In addition, since 2025 the “Connect!” webcast has provided a new exchange format in which the entire Lufthansa Group Executive Board engages in dialogue with employees. These webcasts are held in a hybrid format twice a year or as required by specific communication needs.

A cornerstone for the dialogue with its own workforce is the Group-wide employee survey “involve me!”. Based on this annual survey, important ideas on key topics are identified and a wide range of measures are initiated across the Group. The perspectives of employees from the survey are evaluated and subsequently integrated into the human resources strategy. In addition, a continuous exchange is maintained with the co-determination bodies, whose views are also taken into account.

ESRS 2 SBM-3 – Material impacts, risks and opportunities and their interaction with strategy and business model

The human resources strategy forms an important component of the Lufthansa Group’s corporate strategy. It sets the priorities for the coming years in order to best prepare the workforce for the future. The Lufthansa Group reviews both its corporate strategy and its human resources strategy annually in view of current events and continuously develops them further.

Materiality assessment identifies impacts on a variety of topics

Employees and temporary workers of the Lufthansa Group are the primary focus of the impacts discussed in the materiality assessment. Under the German Law on Labour Leasing (Arbeitnehmerüberlassungsgesetz) and EU Directive 2008/104/EC, temporary workers receive “equal pay for equal work”, meaning they are treated on par with permanent employees. The material impacts, risks and opportunities with a focus on our own workforce, including temporary workers, mainly concern the following topics:

• Flexible work organisation and working time models
• Adequate wages and collective bargaining agreements
• Social dialogue and trade unions (such as unions, employee representatives)
• Health and safety at work
• Diversity, equality and inclusion
• Training and development
• H&S management (hazard and security management)
• Pandemic
• Data security
• Social protection

The Human Resources department also addresses potential impacts, risks and opportunities arising from the ongoing sustainable transformation and the associated activities affecting the Lufthansa Group’s own workforce. In particular, sustainable employability remains a key focus of the human resources strategy. The Lufthansa Group promotes lifelong learning and long-term employability through training and development.

Since 2022, the Company has launched additional training and support programmes, in particular in relation to the environment. For example, the Green Mobility Trainee programme enables participants to work on three sustainability projects at different companies within the Lufthansa Group over an 18-month period. For instance, the carbon footprint of a Lufthansa Group company was calculated and visualised, and measures to reduce emissions were identified. This programme took place for the third time in the reporting year. The “Green Explorers” learning and engagement programme for 150 selected above-average performers took place in 2024. The aim behind the programme is to transform participants into multipliers and driving forces for the promotion of sustainability in everyday business operations. Green Explorers brought together employees from across the Lufthansa Group to address new challenges arising from the Company’s ESG strategy. The programme aims to enable participants to continuously apply the knowledge they have acquired within their work areas. Topics such as sustainable product development, customer loyalty and the use of sustainable materials were covered. To date, the Lufthansa Group has observed no negative impacts on its own workforce resulting from the sustainable transformation in the context of these activities aimed at promoting sustainable employability.

Additional impacts on employees relate to privacy, as data protection incidents involving employees’ personal data could occur. The Lufthansa Group has implemented a Group-wide data protection policy designed to prevent such incidents. ↗  G1-1 – Data protection is regulated Group-wide at the Lufthansa Group.

Material impacts from business operations solely affect employees and temporary workers of the Lufthansa Group in the first instance. German contract law distinguishes between employees, temporary workers and service or work contracts. Service providers engaged under service and work contracts operate under different conditions and are consequently less protected than Lufthansa’s own employees and temporary workers. The Lufthansa Group is aware of this and takes it into account. ↗ S2 – Workers in the value chain.

In crisis and conflict situations, such as wars, epidemics, political unrest or hybrid threats, Lufthansa Group employees may be affected in various roles and regions. The Lufthansa Group continuously assesses such risks and implements situation-specific protective measures, which may range from enhanced communication and support to the temporary suspension of activities, particularly in flight operations. To date, such events have not had any adverse impact on the safety or wellbeing of employees.

The Lufthansa Group has defined initiatives for cooperation and efficiency improvements

The Lufthansa Group employs a Group-wide cultural initiative to promote cooperation across hierarchies and companies for more efficient and flexible business operations. Furthermore, cost-cutting and efficiency-enhancing measures are taken to create the conditions for generating reasonable profits on a long-term basis.

Risks were identified mainly in relation to collective bargaining agreements and employer attractiveness

There is a general risk of labour disputes within the Lufthansa Group, mainly arising from pending collective bargaining agreements with various employee groups. This currently affects Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Lufthansa Cargo AG in particular. The no-strike obligation under the framework collective bargaining agreement for cabin crew and on retirement and transitional benefits for cockpit crew has expired. These collective bargaining agreements remain open, with no agreement on renewal reached to date. In addition, the collective bargaining wage agreements for ground staff at Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Lufthansa Cargo AG and Lufthansa Technik AG expired at the end of 2025, with a subsequent no-strike obligation of six weeks. This increases the risk of industrial action from mid-February 2026. Strike risks also exist at Eurowings Germany, Lufthansa CityLine, Lufthansa City Airlines and Discover Airlines, either due to open collective bargaining agreements, a lack of collective agreement coverage or competing trade unions.

A relationship of trust and effective cooperation with works council and collective bargaining partners is crucial to the Lufthansa Group’s success. To promote and further strengthen this cooperation, numerous measures aimed at fostering open dialogue and constructive co-determination were also implemented in 2024 and 2025. Market changes, such as regulatory requirements, EU environmental regulations, competitive pressure and consolidation, as well as resource constraints in aircraft deliveries, made further organisational adjustments at Deutsche Lufthansa AG necessary. In 2025, the focus was on ensuring the economic success of the Lufthansa Group while retaining and recruiting employees in relevant professional groups and core home markets in line with demand.

There will continue to be a need to recruit skilled workers. This means the Group has to be attractive as an employer, which is another focus for the 2025 financial year and a key focus of our HR activities. The challenge lay in implementing organisational changes at the speed necessitated by the economic environment and the labour market in order to remain adaptable. A trusting relationship between the works council and the management has a vital influence on decision-making on operating matters. A lack of trust can result in delayed decisions and tougher negotiations. To counteract this and improve collaboration with labour union partners, numerous measures were implemented across the individual companies. Adopted measures included full-day exchange formats (for example, labour union partner dialogues) and meetings between management and the works council.

Discrepancies between strategic human resources requirements, the existing skill sets of employees and how they are distributed across the individual companies in the Lufthansa Group continue to constitute a structural human resource planning risk. This risk arises in particular from the challenge of flexibly aligning skills and capacities across the Group with changing market and business requirements.

Given reduced hiring volumes, the focus of the human resources strategy is shifting. While operational recruitment, for example in technical professions, continues to require targeted employer branding measures, greater emphasis is being placed on the Group-wide bundling of processes, internal requalification and internal placement. The Lufthansa Group manages recruitment and employer branding activities at Group level through the Talent Attract Council. This comprises representatives from the largest Group companies as well as key personnel in the Human Resources department. Its responsibilities include the development and implementation of uniform standards, processes and KPIs, as well as the coordination of Group-wide initiatives. The aim is to ensure a consistent, market-oriented approach that promotes competitiveness, efficiency, synergies and sustainability, thereby strengthening the Lufthansa Group’s long-term positioning as an attractive employer.

The Lufthansa Group identifies opportunities primarily in employee engagement

In order to drive employee engagement and become more attractive as an employer, the Lufthansa Group revised working conditions for employees in cooperation with the labour union partners. In light of demographic change and the projected skills shortage, the Lufthansa Group is intensifying its employer branding and human resources marketing activities, while making improvements to its recruitment process and certain key elements of its employees’ experience, such as onboarding. Various apprenticeships, student and trainee programmes are offered to this end, and talents in a variety of groups are supported and systematically networked. Furthermore, an assortment of professional development programmes is offered to enable employees to work on their personal and career development.