Lufthansa Case Study

Lufthansa

Introduction:

Lufthansa was launched through the buying of 737 jets from Boeing. They were the first one's to do so and because of this they are now the leading airline out of Germany (Wikipedia, 1). "Lufthansa operates more than 300 aircraft and employs nearly 100,000 people world-wide. In 2005, 51.3 million passengers flew with Lufthansa (Wikipedia, 1)."

When the jets were bought in 1985 for $500,000,000 it was considered a huge mistake. Since Lufthansa was just breaking into the business buying the planes from the U.S when the exchange rate was at its highest DM3.2/$ it was considered poor judgment. The man responsible for this decision Herr Heinz Ruhnau cost his company millions of dollars because of several poor decisions.

Reasons for Fired:

Herr Heinz Ruhnau had good intentions in his attempt to buy the Boeing aircraft but he overlooked several key factors. As a chairman for Lufthansa he should have thoroughly considered all factors involved with purchasing a plane.