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.
Former Thales CEO Denis Ranque is emerging as a strong contender for the position of EADS chairman. Ranque is one of 12 candidates nominated by EADS for its future board of directors, which is to be confirmed by an extraordinary general assembly around the end of March.
Air Lease Corp. (ALC) has placed an order for 25 Airbus A350s, with 20 of the firm orders for the -900 variant and five for the -1000. The ALC order, which also includes options for five A350-1000s, follows a Cathay Pacific commitment for 26 -1000s announced in mid-2012, which at the time was the first new order for the type in four years. The -1000 backlog still falls far short of the 385 sales of the -900. The smallest aircraft in the A350 family, the A350-800, has a backlog of 92 aircraft.
While the hunt for the root cause of the 787 battery problems continues, at least one aspect of Boeing’s urgent recovery strategy is coming into sharper focus. The company remains adamant in its faith in the current lithium-ion technology and sees no fundamental reason to change its view as the pressure builds to return the airliner to service.
