FRANKFURT, Germany - August 31^st, 2011 - Jaan Albrecht, CEO of Star Alliance Services GmbH, has been proposed by the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG to become Chairman of the Board and CEO of Austrian Airlines AG as of November 1^st, 2011. The nomination is to be considered by the Supervisory Board of the airline at its next meeting in September.

Since 2001 Albrecht has been at the helm of the Star Alliance organization based in Frankfurt, Germany, which is responsible for the coordination of the activities of the world’s leading airline alliance.

Rob Fyfe, the chairman of the alliance’s Chief Executive Board commented on this morning’s news: “For the past decade Jaan has led the development of Star Alliance; coordinating activities across the member airlines, spearheading the acquisition of new members and developing the strategies and initiatives to enhance the Star Alliance proposition to both customers and member carriers. It is with regret that we are losing such a capable and high performing CEO, but he goes to his new role with the very best wishes of all member carriers and our gratitude for his leadership and service over the past ten years.”

As a consequence of today’s announcement the Chief Executive Board of Star Alliance has engaged into an executive search process under Rob Fyfe’s leadership. Until the nomination of a successor Jaan Albrecht will remain in charge of leading the Alliance’s programmes and activities.

A full vita of Mr. Albrecht is available at staralliance.com