German airline Eurowings has appointed Max Kownatzki as its new CEO, effective February 2026. The 53-year-old manager succeeds Jens Bischof, who left the company at the end of 2025. Kownatzki is no stranger to the industry; he returns to Eurowings directly from the top position at SunExpress, a joint venture between Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines. There, he oversaw the founding of Eurowings Europe as Chief Commercial Officer in 2015 and later headed the group's strategic business development. His appointment at the Cologne/Bonn hub marks the beginning of a new strategic phase for Germany's largest leisure airline.
Additional market analyses clarify the expectations for the new CEO: Kownatzki is considered a restructuring expert and growth strategist who successfully guided SunExpress through the crisis and doubled its fleet to over 85 aircraft. At Eurowings, he takes over a stabilized operational base, which he is now expected to further develop by expanding the route network towards Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, as well as by increasing the digitalization of sales. The management team is completed by Kai Duve and Edi Wolfensberger, meaning the airline is relying on a blend of commercial expertise and operational flight management experience.
Kownatzki's professional career underscores his international focus. After earning his doctorate in business administration from the University of St. Gallen, he worked as a partner at the strategy consultancy Oliver Wyman and as head of strategy for the Australian airline Jetstar, among other roles. A distinctive feature of the new CEO is his commercial pilot's license, which gives him a deep understanding of the operational processes of flight operations. This combination of strategic management and technical expertise is expected to help secure the long-term profitability of the Lufthansa subsidiary in the face of fierce competition from European low-cost carriers.
Industry experts are watching the change with great interest, as Eurowings is expected to further sharpen synergies within the Lufthansa Group under the new leadership. Kownatzki was previously responsible for network planning for the group's hub airlines and is intimately familiar with the internal structures. His task will be to solidify the Eurowings brand's price-performance promise while simultaneously defending its market leadership at German secondary airports such as Cologne/Bonn, Düsseldorf, and Hamburg. The coming months will reveal how he adapts capacity planning for the 2026 summer flight schedule to changing global demand.