FraAlliance Logo - A Fraport and Lufthansa Joint Venture
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Meet the team

Team

With a diverse range of skills and experiences, we work collaboratively to deliver exceptional results.

Equally staffed with former Lufthansa and Fraport employees, we are a small group of dedicated individuals who are passionate about improving the passenger experience at Hub FRA Terminal 1.

Maria Bieniek

LinkedIn

Executive Assistant & PMO

After graduating from school, Maria decided to enter the aviation world and her passion for this has lasted for almost 30 years! Maria completed an apprenticeship as an air traffic agent and was particularly enthusiastic about the industry right from the start. She got a taste of various projects and quickly realized that she especially enjoyed organizing teams and managers as an executive assistant. Whether talking about airport expansion, flight operations or the new Terminal 3, if you have a problem, Maria has the right contact on hand to solve it. She is the good soul of the team and the first point of contact if you need help or if a problem needs to be solved. As a founding member, Maria has supported the whole FraAlliance team from the beginning in the position of Executive Assistant & PMO. Maria is passionate about dogs and visiting the Netherlands – The perfect match.

Dirk Schusdziara

Managing Director

The fascination of the airport business has driven Dirk for many years. In addition to various projects and tasks at Frankfurt Airport, Dirk has managed and developed large and small airports in Fraport's international portfolio. Working with different cultures and joint venture partners has given him great pleasure and enthusiasm. He is now continuing this collaborative approach at FraAlliance, where he finds it particularly exciting to bring together the airline's with the airport's way of thinking to implement the best possible product for the customer. In his private life, Dirk enjoys traveling with family and friends and is committed to the visibility of the LGBTIQ+ community.

Kristine Heinisch

Leader Operational Excellence

Kristine's professional life has been shaped by her passion for the many faces of airport operations for over 15 years, after the foundations for consistent customer and service orientation were instilled in her during her first professional position at the Kempinski Group. In acquisition and asset management at the Fraport Group, Kristine perfected her methodological skills and leadership qualities in projects and investments around the world after completing her studies in business administration. Subsequently she focused professionally on Frankfurt Airport and its surroundings by managing Fraport AG's roof safety and noise protection program. Kristine's interest in new things, sought not only in foreign countries or the depths of the sea, has led her to become a founding member of FraAlliance. There she has since continuously identified and implemented efficiency and innovation in the operational areas of Hub FRA T1.

Nadja Fröhlich

Executive Assistant & PMO

Once at the airport, always at the airport! That was clear to Nadja the first time she set a foot on the apron at the General Aviation Terminal. There she was handling the private jets as a ramp and operations agent for 4 years, after finishing her internship in traffic services. After her sabbatical in Colombia and Cuba, she switched to Lufthansa and worked there at the check-in and gate agent for 11 years. She started to go back to school in part-time to gain her Bachelor of international tourism, which she graduated successfully in February 2023. In December 2022, Nadja joined FraAlliance as Executive Assistant and PMO. Nadja's great passion is baking as well as board games and escape rooms! If it comes to baking, there are no limits to her cake creativity: the most important thing is, that the work of art not only looks good, but also tastes good! As she always says: "a cake a day keeps the doctor away."

Maximilian Flaig

Leader Joint Data Competence

After completing his master's degree in electrical engineering and information technology at Technical University Darmstadt, Maximilian started his professional career at Lufthansa Technik. Since then, his fascination for aircraft and the technology associated with them is unceasing. As a founding member of "Lufthansa Aerial Services" and by establishing his own IT company, Maximilian gained valuable experience in setting up start-ups. Maximilian was then drawn back to the airline world. Here, with his IT know-how and understanding of data, he was responsible for both the further development and operation of software used in Lufthansa flight operations. In the FraAlliance joint venture, Maximilian combines his previous start-up experience and his passion for IT projects: The development of a data strategy for FraAlliance as well as the ever-changing IT challenges and requirements of both companies form an exciting and attractive work environment for him.

Stephan Weinmann

Leader Operational Excellence

Stephan's passion for personal intercultural interaction led him to Lufthansa directly after finishing his Master in business administration. Here he gained over 30 years of commercial and operational experience in the station area in Germany and abroad. His strong customer and service orientation helped him to establish new processes for and around the customer in the locations he managed. Through his involvement in the Frankfurt hub as well as at feeder locations, in the handling of low-cost, network, and VIP-airlines, he brings distinctive process and procedural expertise to the FraAlliance team. He is excited to support Fraport and Lufthansa in creating a better experience for their joint customers.

Michelle Herr

LinkedIn

Leader Customer Experience

Once you've set foot in the aviation industry, it's hard to leave: After her studies in Aviation Management, Michelle's path began at Lufthansa's Passenger Experience and Product Management department, where she discovered her passion for customer-centric and agile working. With this dedication for designing the perfect customer experience, she joined FraAlliance as a founding member, where she has since inspired everyone with her enthusiasm for customer, i.e., passenger centricity. In numerous projects she is committed to continuously making passenger needs for the hub FRA transparent and thus improving the passenger experience at Frankfurt Airport a little more every day. Privately, Michelle would describe herself as a travel-enthusiast, foodie, climber, yogi, runner, enthusiastic carnival-goer and Mainz-lover!

Jörg Harnisch

Managing Director

Jörg is driven by his passion for the aviation industry and his desire to continuously and sustainably improve the passenger experience. He has more than 25 versatile years in managing director and executive positions in the Lufthansa Group to his name. With his entrepreneurial spirit and passion for working with and for people, he is not only an essential pillar of FraAlliance's exceptionally collegial culture, but also a driver of innovation. As an expert in lean methodology, he brings a deep knowledge of process optimization and efficiency improvement that is essential for the airport interface. Jörg likes to spend his free time with his family and in faraway countries.

Stefan Widauer

Leader Strategy & Sustainability

As a kid, Stefan wanted to become a pilot and travel the world. He began exploring the world a little earlier with a year abroad in Malaysia. He studied transport economics and completed an apprenticeship as an air traffic service clerk at Lufthansa in Munich - dual studies, self-made. After 3 years in purchasing for ground handling services, he enthusiastically led a joint project between Austrian Airlines and Vienna Airport to improve punctuality and handling processes at the Austrian Hub in Vienna. With 15 years of professional experience in the airline industry under his belt, Stefan joined FraAlliance in January 2023. Through his assignments in the satellite project team in Munich and the joint project between Austrian Airlines and Vienna Airport, Stefan already brings experience in airline / airport cooperation. Especially in the area of sustainability - a focus of his MBA studies in South Africa - he is actively supporting FraAlliance.

Skrolan Kopka

Leader Business Development

Skrolan says about herself that she has kerosene in her blood. Nevertheless, she initially began her career at SIXT AG, a very creative and customer-centric company. After gathering valuable experience, she spent several years focusing on the needs of airline customers at LSG Sky Chefs, immersing herself in Asian culture in particular. Since then, she is particularly enthusiastic about the Japanese culture! Developing the product and service portfolio at Lufthansa Cargo led Skrolan to discover her passion for data and digital services. With an M.A. in Digital Transformation, IoT, Machine Learning, AI and Neural Networks are not only buzzwords for her! At FraAlliance, she ensures congruence between business requirements and the implementations of IT and data experts. Being out with humor and enthusiasm Skrolan can be seen as "bridge-builder", especially to strengthen the cooperation between Lufthansa and Fraport. She personally cannot imagine a better working environment.

Jens Grabeleu

Leader Joint Data Competence

Jens was born with a fascination for aviation. Due to his father's international assignments with Lufthansa, he was influenced by different cultures and languages at a very early age. As a graduate engineer in aerospace engineering, Jens has gained more than 25 years of comprehensive experience and management skills in various specialist and management functions at Fraport AG. His spectrum covers the range of flight operations and terminal processes to IT management. Jens sees the special distinctive power of FraAlliance above all in the linking of the airline and airport worlds to continuously improve the travel experience of passengers along the entire customer journey. For him, the focus here is on increasing value creation by further developing operational and process workflows, testing and introducing new technologies, and driving forward the digital transformation. In his private life, Jens mainly relaxes by gardening and fishing.

Tabea Palmer

Leader Business Development

Tabea spent her entire professional career in the aviation industry. Working with different (corporate) cultures and building new business models and relationships, especially in the non-aviation sector, are her passion. After completing a degree in business administration, Tabea worked in Fraport's international business for 16 years. Here she most recently managed the Aviation & Commercial team, which was entrusted with project acquisition, management and implementation in foreign participations and projects. Tabea was able to get to know many airports on 4 continents as part of her commercial due diligence projects, business case development, airport planning and transition and collect miles with a wide variety of airlines. With this experience, FraAlliance is the perfect workspace for her to create new products and services in the cooperation between Fraport and Lufthansa at her home base FRA.

Manuel Wiesner

Leader Business Development

Manuel has always been fascinated by airports and thus has spent more than 10 years building up, deepening and developing his wide-ranging airport expertise in various roles and activities at Fraport AG in Germany and abroad after completing his studies in business administration. Driven by the mission to make Frankfurt Airport a little better for passengers every day, Manuel likes to think out of the box and embarks on a journey for innovative and new product and service ideas. In accordance with the principle 1+1=3, Manuel lives the cooperative approach and always encounters his environment with openness and curiosity. Born in Mainz, he relaxes best by playing soccer and jogging. Most of all, Manuel enjoys spending time with his family and friends.

Team values

At FraAlliance, we take pride in our commitment to working with unwavering values that shape our every endeavor.

The diverse needs of the current and future passenger groups are the focus of our actions. We take advantage of trends and market opportunities at an early stage to provide new services and to develop novel revenue streams.

We are progressive thinkers with high expectations of ourselves and our stakeholders. Sustainability, new technologies and market changes play a central role for us and are a driving force in the development of new business ideas.

We are entrepreneurs who create added value for our shareholders. We question the status quo, are open to new ideas, and act in an uncomplicated and straightforward manner. Effective solutions are our focus, and we bring them to a decision quickly.

We venture out of our comfort zone, experiment with new ideas and take risks. We are transparent about errors to learn directly from them. We work according to the motto "do less, achieve more".

Sincere and timely feedback moves us forward. We live a goal-oriented discussion culture, where constructive feedback is cherished.

As convinced team players, we are tolerant and fair. A trusting collaboration is a matter of course for us. We live the Fraport and Lufthansa cooperation!

We are the drivers of our own satisfaction and motivation. We give and take the space we need - even outside of work. Fun is part of our success, and we take time to celebrate it.

FraAlliance, a limited liability company with a start-up character and modern office, brings together a young and dynamic team that maintains open communication and shares a common passion for aviation.