14 minute read
GILLES FEITH
Luxair CEO: “We will fly on”
Despite pressures across the airline industry, Luxair CEO Gilles Feith--who took on the role one year ago--sees plenty of opportunities for the airline to reinvent itself and be a force of positive change.
Interview NATALIE A. GERHARDSTEIN Photos MIKE ZENARI
If you could describe your first year as Luxair CEO in one word what would it be? I have different words in mind, but the first word was ‘perseverance’. That’s also something which I have like deeply ingrained in my character... perseverance is what we need here, basically to just keep going when you have these really adverse conditions.
Perseverance is also a very difficult thing to [have] when you don’t see the end of it. It’s like crisis management: you have to keep going, but you don’t know how hard and for how long you have to push. This also leads me to one of the books I would like to associate with the Luxair story. Simon Sinek wrote The Infinite Game, and, basically, running a company like Luxair is like keeping it flying forever, making it self-sustainable... You must be ethical, you must look at the environment, you must be social... if not, you will stumble... And that’s actually how I see that you can get out of this crisis. Everybody has to understand and to persevere.
That’s why one of the main things I introduced into the company here is transparency. I want to be transparent with how we--all together--get out of this situation.
Let’s compare it to a flywheel: basically, you start pushing it--and you have to push hard in the beginning because you have to get out of the situation--but then, afterwards, the wheel gets quicker and quicker, and it starts to auto-rotate. But that push? We’re still doing it today, and nobody would have expected that. In December, we said, ‘Okay, now we’re in spring ’21, everything will be fine’, but it wasn’t. We flew less in January and February than in the months of September, October and so on... but we kept going. Since the beginning, we achieved our cost base on the flights we made, but that only comes with perseverance. You have to constantly adjust the network, every factor. It would be easier to just wait and see. If you don’t persevere, you don’t have the effort part to go on.
You’ve given us some insight into how Luxair was impacted at the start of 2021, but what are the projections, now that we’re heading into the summer months? What we see today is that leisure is coming back. People are reassured because Luxair chose to go deeper in its quality DNA and offer maximum security and safety to all passengers. In the hotels we offer full testing, and we have a safety concept which every hotel has to sign... We are very flexible also on the booking side... People start to notice [this], and they fly a lot more with us. We even see customers we didn’t have before... Whereas
CV
Education Haute École Groupe ICHEC – ISC Saint-Louis – ISFSC, Brussels: master’s degree, sciences commerciales et financières – Révisorat (1997-2001)
Career Luxair Group, CEO (June 2020-current) Ministry of foreign and European affairs, head of cabinet to the minister of defence (2018-2020) CTIE, director (2014-2018), deputy director (2010-2014) Ministry of the civil service and administrative reform, senior civil service member (2007-2010) Post Luxembourg, management position (2003-2007) Arthur Andersen Business Consulting, senior audit assistance (2001-2003) the Luxembourg people know Luxair, and many expats know Luxair as an airline, they don’t know LuxairTours, and they start to see that this is actually a cool thing, where you don’t have to worry about anything, you get the full package.
Then again, we have the airline, where we have 11 small Q400s, and business travel is very, very low. Some companies start because they see the benefit of face-to-face. Then... some routes, like Munich… there’s no connecting to go from there to somewhere else. And because the airline industry is more heavily impacted by the covid measures than any other industry. We had passengers who wanted to go to Milan, who didn’t get the test in time. We refunded the tickets, no problem. But then they simply took the car and drove there, no questions asked... Testing is important, but it is posing us a problem. We choose to integrate it into our packages, for example, but this also has a cost which goes on to our margin. But that’s how it is now, so we have to constantly adapt... [For] 2021 and 2022, there’s one word which will frame this: diversification. I have to diversify the network and see what works... But if you diversify, that’s one thing, but afterwards you have to consolidate again.
Let’s talk about some of those routes. Some routes planned for 2020, such as Manchester, have been impacted. But you’ve also launched several other new destinations... Manchester is a good comparison. We started Manchester--and I still believe in Manchester--but [it]’s a route which is also dependent on how Virgin is operating, because it’s their hub. Also [with] Brexit, that means that we don’t have fifth-freedom rights, so we cannot land in the UK, take passengers and fly somewhere else in the UK, which would be a cool
thing to combine Manchester with Edinburgh or whatever, which reduces [the] exposure on those routes.
My whole strategy, also for our pilots and all the people working at Luxair, is to do as much as possible, and not just wait till this is over because that will kill you for sure. We were looking at new routes... It’s not an easy thing, just to launch a route takes effort from many people at Luxair... It is not the CEO who does that, it is only the people who do it.
Dubai was a big success... it’s really at the end of the reach of our planes, so we had to check how many passengers we can take there... We launched it in February to test it, and the flight sold out in one hour and a half. We were blown away. But that rotation cost us an awful lot of money. I will not say the amount, but that’s a very big financial exposure... it’s a little bit of gamble, but we believed in it. It’s an expensive operation because we have two crews who sleep there, then come back the next day and so on. That’s why we also continue, to launch it as of 30 September, with the World Expo. It will be a success as well... People want to go to the World Expo, to warm places in the winter.
And do you know the business-leisure split here? It’s mainly leisure. We have two phenomena: one is that it shifted from business, connecting and leisure, the mix went to, I’d say, 80% leisure. The other shift is that people book very late which, combined with the regulations in the EU to cancel [and] protect the slots, is a very hard thing for us to manage because we lost some slots because we have to cancel at least three weeks or four weeks in advance, given the slot regulation, and people don’t book four weeks in advance. So, it’s a gamble.
Have there been other considerations to further extend routes outside of Europe, such as Dubai--even if just for special events, like the expo? We’re going to have some surprises for the winter and next year. I think we have some opportunities to deliver some really cool, innovative NEW DESTINATIONS FOR 2021
Luxair La Rochelle (France), Toulon (France), Bologna (Italy), Dubai (United Arab Emirates), Bucharest (Romania), Oslo (Norway), Belgrade (Serbia), Rostock (Germany), Usedom (Germany/Poland), Krakow (Poland).
LuxairTours Tunis (Tunisia), Tivat (Montenegro), Podgorica (Montenegro), Thessaloniki (Greece), Santorini (Greek island), Mykonos (Greek island).
things to the Luxembourg market which has not been there before... We’re going to bring some very new concepts. Demand is shifting, so we have to offer the whole thing.
Could you tell us more? I’ll reveal one. We’re thinking about surprise getaways for weekends, for example, with very attractive prices, at very short notice.
Let’s switch gears then... the airline industry tends to be controversial because of its carbon footprint, but are there ways in which Luxair is trying to offset this? I won’t reveal too much now, [but] I’m preparing to have a concept. For me, the environment is a very important thing. And this brings me back to The Infinite Game: no company can make their business [at the expense] of nature or people... This is not acceptable anymore in Europe in these times... There we have to see what aviation can do... you cannot greenwash aviation, but you can do what you need to do to be as correct as possible. I would love to invest because aviation is a very technology-driven business and innovation leads to a thing where aviation gets cleaner each year. But that means aviation must be sustainable, for the environment, from an investment point of view, and for people. That’s why I always said flying should not get cheaper.
If you fly for a price, let’s say €10, and you have €8.5 taxes on one leg and take two [legs] back and forth, you already lose on airport taxes... I would not buy meat that costs €5 a
kilo because that’s totally irresponsible. It’s the same discussion. Flying should not be a convenience, it should be an experience, create added value... I don’t want to stigmatise any industry, but there is a lot to do in many other industries. Aviation has already done a lot and is already compensating for its CO2, largely. I’m working on this. I’m conscious this is a problem, and we’re looking at what we can do to be responsible in that field.
Do you think the health crisis will continue to impact the way people travel? Definitely. I’d be very naive not to think so. Aviation will change... I think there will be a reduction by at least 30% in business travel because these small meetings, you will not do them anymore. Also, there will maybe be fewer people who will fly... Your delegation will be five people instead of ten. Also, the frequency will be reduced. [But] if you do a Zoom interview, it’s not the same because you don’t have the interaction, the human factor... so it will not disappear completely.
On the leisure side, there’s also a shift because people also get more eco-conscious, more individual. We have to broaden our customer base, and diversify our offer, individualise our offer... We’ve taken the opportunity of this covid situation to invest heavily in IT, new products. We’re going to launch in June, hopefully, an active holiday concept where we will offer full guided tours with coaches and everything. This will be something very new because there are a lot of people [who] do biking and hiking in the Canaries and so on, and we will organise this so people don’t have to worry, because a lot of people don’t have time anymore. Unfortunately, in Luxembourg, you need to work a lot to sustain your living, and that kills some of the time you would invest into looking into travel... we have to offer the perfect service.
Luxair seems to have really boosted its marketing efforts over the last year or so, also through social media, including Tiktok. Is this also to capture a different demographic? Yes and no. We’re 3,000 people in this company. One of my aims is that the 3,000 people are proud to work here, understand what we do, and that we have a culture of ‘we are Luxair’. That’s one of my big aims. It may be cheesy, but it’s a little bit like what Southwest did: the people are happy to work at Southwest, and I want people to be happy to work at Luxair. This is why one of the other words I thought about is ‘together’. Nothing here is done by me alone, or anybody alone, we achieve this together. It is this togetherness that will also help me get Luxair out of this crisis...
I told people, ‘If you want to share something, do it.’ Crews told me [they] wanted a bit more
freedom with hair, tattoos or earrings, and we developed the ‘work as you are’ concept, where people get a little freedom. We’re one of the first airlines in the world to allow [this] because that’s how we are. That’s how our society is... If you put people in a cage, [they] are not happy... Why should you not be allowed to wear some jewellery, or have a small tattoo? We told them we don’t have a lot of money to do marketing or communication, we have to do some. That’s why we also wanted to let people share their views because most of our pilots, crews and all the people in the airline are very proud of what they do. They are [our] best ambassadors.
With Sumo, we wanted to develop a mood... it is not a marketing push we needed. We wanted to have people feel fresh again, light again. And this was the mood we wanted to develop… for our clients and internally. Because, also, imagine you work in a company where you don’t see the future, you have a salary freeze... that’s also why one of my jobs is to reassure all our people that, yes, we will fly on. It’s a culture thing, inside the company and outside the company. We have to look into the bright future.
Feith shares a Luxair Tiktok dancing video which at the time of publication had reached around 124K views.
NOTZ STUCKI BECOMES NS PARTNERS
GENEVA-BASED ASSET MANAGEMENT GROUP NOTZ STUCKI BECOMES NS PARTNERS. THIS SHIFT WILL BE MARKED BY A VISUAL IDENTITY MAKEOVER, WITH A REFASHIONED LOGO AND A NEW SLOGAN.
The change is a response to the company’s development over the past few years. In fact, two years ago our Group entered a new phase in its development, which translated into a renewal of its organisation.
“In addition, while its original focus was on private banking and alternative funds, NS PARTNERS has greatly diversified over the past few years, as seen in the success of its traditional investment funds and the growth of its investment fund services and engineering at its Luxembourg ManCo”, said Paolo Faraone, CEO of NS Partners Europe S.A.
“The letters NS, which we already use for our funds and some of our projects, are the initials of our two founders, Beat Notz and Christian Stucki. They tell our story in a concrete way and attest to our wish to maintain continuity. As for the word PARTNERS, it expresses the inclusion of new shareholders and the partnerships that we plan to create with our employees, our business partners, and our clients”
said Frédéric de Poix, Member of the Executive Committee.
A NEW MOTTO
This name change comes with a new motto, “Invest with talent”, reflecting NS PARTNERS’ conviction that there are truly talented individuals who generate real added value in terms of investing..
“Starting in the ‘60s, the group has been a pioneer in selecting the world’s best fund managers and in working in open architecture. This innovative concept was a huge success, making NS PARTNERS one of the top independent wealth managers in Switzerland today. At the same time, drawing on synergies with our internal management teams, we have developed substantial expertise in several key themes”
The company names of the Group’s various entities have changed as a result, as has the website address, which is now nspgroup.com.
ABOUT NS PARTNERS
Founded in 1964, NS PARTNERS is now one of the largest independent investment management groups in Switzerland and in Europe. In its 57 years, NS PARTNERS has developed unrivalled expertise in selecting the best fund managers from around the world and combining them to build topperforming and resilient portfolios. At the same time, NS PARTNERS has built a diversified range of traditional strategies with a proven track record.
The Group’s client base is international and sophisticated, combining high-networth individuals, family offices, pension funds, asset management companies and businesses, all with one demand in common: superior absolute performance and highly personal service.
NS PARTNERS is management-owned, fiercely independent, and free of any outside pressure that might jeopardise its impartiality. Its managers invest alongside its clients, ensuring that interests are fully aligned. NS PARTNERS Group manages or administers some CHF 11 billion in assets across three highly complementary activities:
• Wealth Management: Discretionary and advisory management • Asset Management: NS Funds and investment solutions • ManCo: Fund engineering and dedicated fund services
NS PARTNERS has over 110 employees in seven offices around the world (Geneva, Zurich, London, Luxembourg, Madrid, Milan and Bermuda).
For any additional information, please contact:
NS Partners Europe SA
T +352 26 27 11 53 luxembourg@nspgroup.com nspgroup.com
