Jürgen Raps

Jürgen Raps (11 August 1951 – 6 December 2025)[1] was a German pilot and aviation manager. He served as Chief Operating Officer (Operations) at Lufthansa Passenger Airlines (Lufthansa Passage), and is described in obituaries as a member of the Lufthansa Passage executive board as well as the accountable manager (AOC) and chief pilot.[2][3][4] He was also an honorary professor at Hochschule Bremen in the fields of aviation and management.[2]

Life and career

Raps was born in Bayreuth. At the age of five, he took a sightseeing flight with his father departing from Bayreuth Airport (Verkehrslandeplatz Bayreuth), flying over Upper Franconia. At age 13, he learned gliding with the Luftsportgemeinschaft Bayreuth.[5]

After completing secondary school, he applied to the Deutsche Lufthansa commercial pilot school in Bremen. He began training there in 1970 and obtained his pilot licence in 1972.[2] He subsequently served as a first officer on the Boeing 737 and the McDonnell Douglas DC-10.[2][3] In 1984, he became a captain on the Boeing 737.[2][3]

In 1990, Raps became head of the Lufthansa commercial pilot school in Bremen.[2] In 1996, he was appointed chief pilot and head of flight operations (Senior Vice President Flight Operations).[2][6]

He was credited with leading Lufthansa's first scheduled service linking West Germany and East Germany in 1989.[2] In 2007, he was among the first pilots worldwide to obtain a licence for the Airbus A380.[1][6] In 2010, he flew an A380 transporting the German national football team to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in Johannesburg.[5]

Additional leadership roles and dates are listed in his professional profile.[7]

Raps died on 6 December 2025 in Phoenix, Arizona, at the age of 74.[8]

Activities

Raps served as president (industry and aviation) of the aviation initiative AIREG (Aviation Initiative for Renewable Energy in Germany).[9][10] AIREG advocates the expansion and use of renewable energy and alternative aviation fuels to reduce CO₂ emissions in aviation.[11][12]

Media

Raps was the protagonist of the PilotsEYE.tv documentary San Francisco A380 – The final flights of JR (episode 12).[13][14][15] He also appeared as an interviewee in the hr documentary series Mittendrin – Flughafen Frankfurt (A 380: Letzter Take-off für den Supervogel).[16][17] A two-part podcast/video interview (planeTALK) was also published in the PilotsEYE environment.[18][19]

References

  1. ^ a b "Lufthansa trauert um Jürgen Raps" [Lufthansa mourns Jürgen Raps]. aero.de (in German). 8 December 2025. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h "Trauer um Honorarprofessor und den bekannten Piloten Jürgen Raps" [Mourning honorary professor and well-known pilot Jürgen Raps]. Hochschule Bremen (in German). 10 December 2025. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  3. ^ a b c "Raps to head Lufthansa operations". Breaking Travel News. 20 August 2007. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  4. ^ "Cessna Citation CJ1+ aircraft to be used for Lufthansa pilot training programme". FlightGlobal. 25 September 2007. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  5. ^ a b "Lufthansa-Legende Jürgen Raps gestorben" [Lufthansa legend Jürgen Raps has died]. Nordbayerischer Kurier (in German). 9 December 2025. p. 9.
  6. ^ a b "Mit Jürgen Raps verliert Lufthansa einen ihrer prägendsten Piloten" [With Jürgen Raps, Lufthansa loses one of its most formative pilots]. LinkedIn (in German). Retrieved 23 December 2025.[self-published]
  7. ^ "Prof. Capt. Jürgen Raps, FRAeS – Experience". LinkedIn. Retrieved 23 December 2025.[self-published]
  8. ^ ""Und du hast es keinen Tag bereut" – Abschied von Flugkapitän Jürgen Raps" ["And you never regretted it for a day" – Farewell to Captain Jürgen Raps]. emet-news-press.com (in German). 10 December 2025. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  9. ^ "Aireg-Präsident Raps: "Unsere Ziele sind ehrgeizig, aber …"" [AIREG President Raps: "Our goals are ambitious, but …"]. airliners.de (in German). 28 September 2016. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  10. ^ "Kraftstoffe der Zukunft: aireg stellt marktreife Technologien für alternative Flugkraftstoffe vor" [Fuels of the future: AIREG presents market-ready technologies for alternative aviation fuels]. verbaende.com (in German). 20 January 2015. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  11. ^ "Aviation Initiative for Renewable Energy in Germany (AIREG)". ICAO. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  12. ^ "About aireg e.V." aireg.de. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  13. ^ "San Francisco A380 – The final flights of JR – Jürgen Raps". PilotsEYE.tv. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  14. ^ "PM PilotsEYE.tv No12 "A380 San Francisco – The final flights of JR"" (PDF). PilotsEYE.tv. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  15. ^ "San Francisco A380 (PilotsEYE.tv)". IMDb. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  16. ^ "Mittendrin – Flughafen Frankfurt: A 380: Letzter Take-off für den Supervogel (Staffel 9, Folge 1)" [Inside Frankfurt Airport: A380: Last take-off for the "super-bird" (Season 9, Episode 1)]. fernsehserien.de (in German). 22 October 2025. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  17. ^ "Last take off for the A380 superplane - Mittendrin - Flughafen Frankfurt - hr". YouTube. 5 November 2021. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  18. ^ "planeTALK - Prof Jürgen RAPS 1/2 "The former Lufthansa flight school director"". YouTube. 20 September 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
  19. ^ "PilotsEYE.tv Jürgen Raps – Interview "41 Years in 25 Minutes"". YouTube. 24 September 2012. Retrieved 23 December 2025.
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