Karl-Hermann Brandes has been Chief Operating Officer of Lufthansa Airlines since 1 September 2022.

After studying engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Munich, Karl-Hermann Brandes qualified as commercial pilot. In 1989, he began his flying career at Lufthansa as first officer on the Boeing 737 and in the following years progressed through the pilot career until he became a captain in 2000. Karl-Hermann Brandes started his first administrative function in 2004, when he took over the lead for the project "Link 2000+. From 2005 onwards, he supported the Nominated Person Flight Crew Training as Referent Senior Training Captain, until he took over responsibility for the Flight Crew Training Continental in 2007. In this function, he was responsible for the management and coordination of licence maintenance measures for cockpit personnel. Between 2010 and 2016, Karl-Hermann Brandes was in charge of the disciplinary management of cockpit personnel as fleet manager of the A320 fleet at Lufthansa's Munich hub and was finally appointed Nominated Person Flight Operations at Lufthansa Airlines in 2016. In this function, he was responsible for Lufthansa flight operations in accordance with EU regulations, as well as the technical responsibility for flight perations with around 250 aircraft and more than 4,300 pilots. Karl-Hermann Brandes was appointed to the Executive Board of Lufthansa Airlines as Chief Operations Officer on 1 September 2022. As Accountable Manager, he takes over the responsibility for the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) and the Maintenance Organisation.

Karl-Hermann Brandes was born in Munich in 1966, is married and the father of two daughters.

As of: 01 February 2023