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.
Just how structurally inefficient European legacy carriers still are in spite of current economic pressures is well illustrated by the comparison of Iberia and its new short-haul offshoot, Iberia Express. The latter has 10 aircraft and was launched three months ago. It became profitable in its second month and exceeded the target of a 20% unit cost improvement over its parent. It achieved 30%, and that is without the greater economies of scale available to Iberia, an airline with over 15 times more aircraft.
Scandinavian Airlines’ downhill slide is continuing and the airline is responding with more staff cuts. CEO Rickard Gustafson said on Wednesday that “delivering productivity gains and cost savings will create redundancies that must be taken out.” The airline is in the process of eliminating about 300 administrative positions, adding to thousands of jobs cut in the past several years. SAS has not made a profit since 2007. Richardson did not specify how many additional positions will be taken out.
