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.
Air France-KLM is preparing further cuts to its cargo division to accommodate the current weakness in global airfreight. “We must continue to reduce capacity in this business,” the group’s CFO Philippe Calavia said May 3, during a first quarter earnings call. “We believe there is too much capacity and we are competing with other transport modes.” Calavia believes the weakness of global air freight is partly structural, and Air France-KLM is adapting by focusing more on belly cargo.
Guy Norris (Los Angeles), Jens Flottau (Frankfurt), Graham Warwick (Washington)
The tempo of new turboprop airliner and engine development is, by its very nature, slower than that of the turbofan-powered jetliner. Although confined to a niche market, turboprops have set such a high benchmark for efficiency since the 1990s that they have made themselves irreplaceable. Added to this, the overall lower volume of production and turnover in regional turboprops have made it tough to close the business case for expensive step-change replacements.