He started his journalism career in 1992 as a freelance writer for Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Germany’s largest daily national newspaper and soon specialised in air transport. Jens joined Aviation Week and Aviation Daily in 2000 as one of the European correspondents. Later his role was expanded to cover international air transport. In 2013 he was named Managing Editor Commercial.
Jens frequently appears on radio and TV to comment on industry matters. In 2003, he received the Hugo Junkers Award of the German aviation press for his coverage of Fairchild Dornier’s bankruptcy. He was named the country’s top travel and air transport writer by the Travel Industry Club three times. Jens graduated from the Munich School of Journalism.
Icelandair next year plans to grow its Boeing 757 fleet to 21 aircraft from 18 to continue its rapid capacity expansion in the North Atlantic market. The airline will use the fleet expansion to add Vancouver International and Edmonton International airports in Canada to its route network as well as increase frequencies to existing destinations.
Norwegian Air Shuttle next year is planning to launch three more U.S. markets starting in May, as the carrier takes delivery of more Boeing 787s, although the more remarkable aspect of the decision is the exclusion of new services to Asia. The airline currently has a five-weekly service from Stockholm Arlanda and Oslo airports to Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, and CEO Bjoern Kjos has always argued that the big growth in long-haul travel will be Asia to Europe, with most of the traffic originating in the Asian leisure segment.
Lufthansa is likely to face another bruising labor disagreement after unilaterally terminating pensions and early retirement provisions for flight crew. The move affects around 60,000 employees based in Germany. Lufthansa argues that it can no longer afford to spend up to €400 million ($527 million) annually to address a widening pension deficit that is created by the difference between expected and actual interest rates, and improved life expectancy.
