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.
Virgin Atlantic has selected Aer Lingus as the partner airline to operate the short-haul feeder network into London Heathrow Airport. The long-haul carrier will wet-lease Aer Lingus A320s for an initial period of three years. The airline has been allocated 12 daily slot pairs in Heathrow as a remedy for BMI’s acquisition by British Airways earlier this year. Virgin Atlantic plans to operate six daily roundtrips to Edinburgh and three each to Manchester and Aberdeen to cater to the local market as well as being able to feed its Heathrow long-haul network.
The Airbus A350-800 has lost half of its firm orders since 2009 and appears to be commercially the weakest member of the new long-haul aircraft family. But Airbus nonetheless still plans to build it.
The Airbus A330 has proven to be an extremely popular aircraft, even after the launch of the Boeing 787. It delivers a lot of what most airlines need. Now Airbus is adding further to its capabilities. The European manufacturer has revealed plans to increase the maximum takeoff weight of its two A330 versions. It plans to offer the A330-300 and A330-200 in 242-ton variants giving the aircraft, respectively, 500 nm and 350 nm more range.
