Max Kownatzki, CEO of SunExpress for almost six years, will take over as Chairman of the Executive Board of Eurowings on 1 February 2026. He succeeds Jens Bischof, who is stepping down from the position of Chief Executive Officer at the end of the year after five years at the helm of Eurowings and over 35 years in leading roles within the Lufthansa Group of which Eurowings is a part.

Kownatzki led the German-Turkish airline SunExpress – a joint venture between the Lufthansa Group and Turkish Airlines – out of the coronavirus crisis as CEO and steered the airline to record results. Last year, SunExpress increased its revenue by 23 percent to a record €2.2 billion and carried around 15 million passengers.

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Eurowings is familiar territory for Max Kownatzki: he was co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer of Eurowings Europe flight operations back in 2015. He was later responsible for business development at Eurowings as Senior Vice President. He began his career in 2002 at the strategy consultancy Oliver Wyman, where he worked as a senior partner until 2013, advising international airlines with a focus on alliances and commercial issues. He then worked as Chief Strategy Officer for the Jetstar Group, a subsidiary of Qantas Airways, before taking over network planning and strategic alliances for the Lufthansa Group’s hub airlines in 2017 and becoming a member of the Supervisory Board of Air Dolomiti. He has been CEO of SunExpress since April 2020.

Kownatzki studied business administration in St. Gallen, where he also obtained his doctorate, and holds a commercial pilot’s license.