Uli Ogiermann quits Qatar for return to Europe

Uli Ogiermann, chief cargo officer at Qatar Airways, is to leave the airline he helped propel into the top tier of cargo carriers.

He will leave Qatar in mid-December for family reasons and return to Europe, he told The Loadstar.

“It has been a very tough decision. My team and I were privileged to develop QR Cargo from small numbers to become an important player in terms of quality and size.”

He will continue to support QR Cargo on a consultancy basis.

One source indicated that a temporary replacement would be found within Qatar’s existing cargo team.

Mr Ogiermann is one of the most respected air cargo executives, and has been in the industry for more than 25 years.

He began his career at Lufthansa, where he became route manager cargo for the Americas once the German airline put its cargo division into a separate entity. German and Luxembourgish, he moved to Cargloux in 1998, becoming president and CEO in 2003.

Mr Ogiermann has been a member of the IATA Cargo Committee for many years, and was chairman of TIACA in 2009 and 2010.

He took on the cargo chief role at Qatar in 2012, where he has survived considerably longer than many European executives. Nearly 20 freighters have been delivered to the airline since he took over, and growth has been phenomenal.

The airline announced in 2013 it wanted to be among the top five cargo players by 2018 – under Mr Ogiermann, it became number three, measured in IATA freight tonne km, in 2015.

He said “it was a ride that has been exciting, to say the least”.

The Loadstar would like to wish Mr Ogiermann well, and every success in the next stage of his career.