Hahn Air announced the appointment of Christoph Althoff as Vice President Airline Business.
The industry professional joined the Hahn Air team on 1st July and will be in charge of an international team of experts managing the partnerships with Hahn Air’s more than 350 partner airlines worldwide as well as acquiring and implementing new partner carriers. Christoph Althoff is taking over from Steve Knackstedt who has been in this role for more than 13 years and who will retire at the end of 2021.
Christoph Althoff studied in Germany, Argentina and the US, and holds a degree in International Relations & Economics. He started his career as a strategic consultant for telecom companies across Europe. In the past 17 years, he has been working for major travel industry players such as PROS Holding and Amadeus where he successfully developed data-driven and customer-centric sales strategies for airlines and other travel-related clients. An expert in digital retailing channels, he acquired a proven track record of building and leading sales and account management teams in charge of optimising airline revenues. He has been living in Madrid, Spain, for more than 20 years and speaks German, English and Spanish.
Christoph Althoff comments: “When I was with Amadeus and PROS, I already worked closely with Hahn Air. It was impressive to witness the speed, professionality and enthusiasm of the Hahn Air colleagues and I am very much looking forward to be part of the team and to enable the partner airlines to optimise their revenue with Hahn Air’s distribution solutions.”
Steve Knackstedt joined Hahn Air in 2007 after 28 years in various senior operations and sales positions with Continental Airlines and as a consultant for Cologne-Bonn Airport. Together with his team, he has enabled the Hahn Air partner airlines to optimise their indirect distribution strategy with products such as HR-169, H1-Air, X1-Air, HR-EMD and HR-Corporate.
“We are very pleased to welcome Christoph in our team”, said Alexander Proschka, Executive Vice President Commercial at Hahn Air.
“We are convinced that our teams and partners will benefit of his industry knowledge and leadership skills as well as his expertise in forward-looking technologies and sales strategy. At the same time, we would like to thank Steve for his loyalty and commitment during the past 13 years. He has been instrumental in building one of the largest interline networks in the world and has facilitated the growth of the Hahn Air distribution solutions.”
