Deutsche Lufthansa announced that its Chief Executive Officer Christoph Franz had already left the company. No successor has yet been named to take his place. Franz would be moving to Roche Holding as its new Chairman, replacing Franz Humer.

Franz told Bloomberg that he left the airline company for professional reasons. "This is the right time for change in leadership. Taking the decision was anything but easy after 15 years at the Lufthansa Group," he said.

Franz became CEO in 2011. During his term, he reduced the workforce by cutting 3,500 jobs in a massive savings effort. He also replaced the Lufthansa fleet with more fuel-efficient aircraft.

His departure came in the middle of the company's score program. The effort was geared towards lifting the firm's operating profit to EUR 2.3 billion by 2015. As part of the plan, Lufthansa would be handing over a lot of its short-haul flights to Germanwings, its discount unit.