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.
European low-cost carriers are seeing a significant traffic drop in their German networks since the beginning of the year. DLR, Germany’s aerospace research center, says low-cost airline traffic on domestic routes declined 8% in the first three months of 2011. The likely reason, DLR says, is the introduction of the air passenger tax in January. Germany charges an €8 ($11.85) tax for every departure at a German airport, so that domestic roundtrips are taxed twice, whereas European journeys are counted only once.
Norwegian Air Shuttle suffered a wider loss in the first quarter as the airline was hit by higher fuel costs while investing significantly in new market segments. The quarterly deficit totaled NOK293 million ($55.2 million), up from NOK199 million a year earlier. CEO Bjorn Kjos says the company spent NOK140 million more on fuel than a year ago and had extraordinary startup costs of another NOK100 million.
The global air cargo industry may soon look significantly different now that Lufthansa Cargo is seeking to build an alliance to rival that of Skyteam Cargo's. But it may have to contend with some tough competition in its immediate vicinity now that Qatar Airways is eying an investment in Cargolux. “We will definitely make another try to start anew with Star Alliance partners,” Lufthansa Cargo's new CEO, Karl-Ulrich Garnadt, tells Aviation Week. “There is no reason why this should not work.”
