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.
If stock market fluctuations are considered to be good indicators, the next big airline industry disaster is just around the corner. Because of the outbreak of avian influenza in China, airline stocks started to plunge at the start of the month. That country's carriers were hit particularly hard; some share prices were down by as much as 15%. Even European airlines experienced significant drops. And the situation escalated further when EasyJet's stock dropped by 3%, even though it had just reported significantly reduced losses for the seasonally weak first half.
Lufthansa this fall will start the transfer of 25 Airbus A320s to its Germanwings affiliate under a plan to restructure the mainline carrier's non-hub operations. The transfer will increase Germanwings’ fleet to 84 aircraft consisting of 61 Airbus narrowbodies and 23 Bombardier CRJ900s.
Lufthansa is speeding up the retirement of its Boeing 737, 747-400 and Bombardier CRJ700 fleets to keep capacity flat during a period of increased new aircraft deliveries. Carsten Spohr, CEO of the group’s passenger airline division, tells Aviation Week that the airline will phase out all remaining Boeing 737-300s, 737-500s and Bombardier CRJ700s by the summer of 2015. Lufthansa currently operates 17 737-300s, 22 737-500s and 20 CRJ700s at Lufthansa CityLine. The company also will retire 12 Boeing 747-400s in the next three years but will retain the 13 youngest 747-400s.
