Head of Network Planning Lh Group Africa

Mission

Responsible for the overall lead & coordination of the market planning of the LHG Hub Airlines African long-haul network.

Develops conceptually market planning scenarios by optimizing service patterns to existing markets and by evaluating new catchments and new destinations in order to continuously improve the profitability, market share and cost position of the long-haul network in line with the overall strategy of the LHG.

Supervision of the market planning team.

Acts as commercial interface for the coordination of the SN/BRU Intercontinental operations.

Key Result Areas
- Team Management Africa Market Planning

Overall coordination & lead of all Africa network related network activities

Main activities

Supervises and gives leadership to the team in the day-to-day activities, coaches & motivates the team members, guarantees further team development, performs the annual evaluations and takes care of HR related issues. The team is located cross border in various LHG Hub locations.
- Optimization existing network

Overall optimization of the network, both conceptually & by improving the main KPIs.

Main activities

Optimizes the profitability, market share and cost position of the overall network and of individual routes by defining the conceptual approach to optimize the overall route mix, the schedule patterns and capacity allocation based on a close monitoring of the performance indicators of the network/routes, market/competitive developments and customer preferences/willingness to pay. Discusses results of business case analysis with sales and revenue management and consolidates feedback into a final recommendation for board decision.
- Identification new opportunities

Business case evaluation from a to z of potential opportunities.

Main activities

Defines the conceptual approach to identify new market opportunities (new catchments or new destinations), performs the necessary market studies in close co-operation with commercial to back up the proposed new opportunities and prepares a business case for decisions up to board level based on input from all relevant departments in order to further optimize the profitability of the network.
- LHG Strategy Africa

Introduction of a group-wide strategy for Africa.

Main activities

Conceives, formulates and implements a group-wide intercontinental market presence strategy on Africa across all LHG hubs and co-ordinates this strategy with all relevant stakeholders
- Secure long-haul feed/de-feed

Ensure the right connectivity, both towards the medium haul & long haul network

Main activities

Develops conceptual network structures with respect to the overall network design of a Long-haul operating base (Short/Medium-Haul - Long-Haul and their interaction) in order to secure the required short/medium-haul feed to/from the long-haul network by identifying new source markets and optimizing the schedule patterns with the aim to optimize the cost efficiency and revenue generation of the total network design. Interacts with the short/medium-haul network planning & scheduling department to defend the long-haul feeding requirements.
- Commercial interface SN / BRU Intercontinental operations

SPOC for all request with regards to the Intercontinental operations in BRU

Main activities

Acts as a commercial interface for all SN/BRU Intercontinental operations - liaises with the other relevant geographical intercontinental planning teams to address issues in BRU related to the commercial performance of the respective intercontinental services. Takes ownership of the relevant points and addresses them within SN/BRU for resolution.
- Market Planning processes

Derives general requirements for up
- and down-stream planning processes

Main activities

Analyses, questions and, if necessary, breaks the existing rules of Intercontinental flight planning in order to derive optimized future-proof guidelines and structures. Assures the use of uniform and comparable assessment methods within the team. Processes on fleet planning, network strategy and sales co-ordination
- Budget & Forecasting

Production of the annual budget forecast

Main activities

Delivers yearly budget and seasonal production forecast figures together with initial revenue/bottom-line budget forecasts to Controlling and other internal or LH Group stakeholders based on network performance & forecast models.
- Follow-up short-term market demand

Weighs up short-term flight schedule changes in response to changing market and demand conditions.

This position reports to: AN/I Head of Intercont Network Planning (Functional Leader) & BRU K/CN Head of Network Strategy & Planning (Divisional Leader)

Profile
- University degree (master) in Economics or equivalent
- Minimum 5 years experience in the airline sector
- Previous experience in Network Planning short-haul or long-haul
- Previous leadership/management experience
- In-depth knowledge of Excel, other data reporting tools (Tableau), Word, PowerPoin