"Lufthansa as we know it today would be unthinkable without Jürgen Weber. During his years as Chairman of the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board, he shaped the company. He understood the unifying power of air transport. The founding of Star Alliance and the expansion of Frankfurt Airport are largely due to him. He had an equally strong impact within the company. No one else touched the hearts and minds of employees like Jürgen Weber. No one else shaped the culture of Lufthansa like he did. We pay tribute to the life's work of an exceptional person. Jürgen Weber will always have a place of honor in our company's history": this is how Karl Ludwig Kley, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Lufthansa, greeted the passing of the former CEO of the German carrier.

Weber joined Lufthansa as a young engineer in 1967, and after a rapid rise in the technical department, he was appointed to the Board of Directors of Deutsche Lufthansa AG in 1990. He led the company from 1991 to 2003 as CEO and was Chairman of the Supervisory Board from 2003 to 2013, before serving as Honorary Chairman of the Supervisory Board until his death. During his tenure, he was not only responsible for the reorganization, restructuring and privatization of the airline with the crane on its tail, but also put Lufthansa back on the road to success, demonstrating his strategic foresight already in the 1990s. As one of its founding fathers, Jürgen Weber created the Star Alliance, which remains the largest global airline alliance today.

Carsten Spohr, current Chairman of the Board of Directors of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, expressed his deep sympathy on behalf of all employees of the Lufthansa Group:

"Jürgen Weber was called 'Mr Lufthansa', and rightly so. He devoted his entire professional life to our company and shaped it. Like no other, he embodied the renewal of Lufthansa during its restructuring and privatization in the 1990s. Crucial decisions and developments at Deutsche Lufthansa AG are –and will remain– inextricably linked to his name. We at Lufthansa owe Jürgen Weber a debt of gratitude for his extraordinary service to the Group. Our thoughts are now with his family".