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.
A European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) mandate that Airbus A380 operators inspect and potentially fix L-shaped wing rib-feet so far has had only a minor impact on operations at Singapore Airlines. Singapore Airlines found cracks on the small wing component on all six aircraft inspected. Five have been returned to service already and a sixth to be back in operations tomorrow. No major service disruptions resulted, although some A380 flights were downgauged to Boeing 777-300ERs while the Airbus aircraft was being fixed.
A Budapest court has placed Malev Hungarian Airlines under bankruptcy protection to keep the airline out of outright bankruptcy proceedings. A trustee has been appointed to control all expenditures planned by the airline, and management has been told to present a “liquidity plan” by today.
Given the economic woes in their home markets, European airlines posted surprisingly strong traffic gains of 9.8% in December and 9.5% for the full year 2011, according to the latest figures released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA). IATA says the figures are “somewhat surprising in light of the European sovereign debt crisis,” but airlines have benefited from strong business travel demand on long-haul routes and exports from Northern Europe.
