It's not like Jens Ritter doesn't know the ins and outs of an airplane. The man has been working as an Airbus pilot for many years, studied aerospace engineering, held positions in the executive teams of Austrian Airlines and Eurowings, and is now the CEO of Lufthansa Airlines. Nevertheless, Ritter was able to recently share a completely new experience on board. He flew as part of the cabin crew to Riyadh and Bahrain, and in doing so, had plenty of "aha"-moments.

"I was amazed at how much there is to organize, especially when things don't go as planned," the airline manager later shared on LinkedIn. For example, the meals offered on the menus were not exactly the meals that were loaded on board.

Precisely because the aviation industry is grappling with many operational problems after the end of the pandemic – one remembers the chaotic summer of 2022 – many managers are currently taking the opportunity to step into the role of an employee in the operational business. By doing so, they get a better understanding of the difficulties on-site. Executives from airport operator Fraport have been known to help with baggage handling, and airline executives are working as flight attendants.

In May, Marjan Rintel, CEO of Netherlands-based KLM, was spotted serving passengers on a flight from Los Angeles to Amsterdam. Recently, the CEO of Air New Zealand, Greg Foran, was seen handling baggage – the airline had faced criticism earlier in the year due to a higher-than-average number of lost luggage incidents. Specifically managers who hold pilot licenses attempt to regularly work in the cockpit themselves – Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr did this for years, as does Jens Ritter, and also the CEO of Air Baltic, Martin Gauss, or Tui manager Oliver Lackmann, who is on the verge of moving to German Airways.

Ritter (born in 1973) served passengers in the business class on the way to Riyadh and switched to the economy class on the nighttime return flight to Frankfurt. He had been flying as a pilot for years and had thought he knew what a night flight meant. However, "being present, attentive, and charming when your biological clock is telling you to sleep" – that was quite a challenge, according to the CEO of Lufthansa Airlines. "I was amazed at how much I learned in those few hours. The decisions in the office will be different when you truly feel the decisions on board."

His engagement in the sky consistently received positive feedback on social media. Yet, numerous commentators advised him to contemplate providing support to employees in call centers and other customer service roles in the near future. While experiences with Lufthansa flights are generally satisfactory, the company's services before and after the flights often fall short, as noted in a LinkedIn comment.