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.
The German federal government is trying to resolve an internal disagreement about how to deal with the future of European aerospace giant EADS. Daimler AG, one of the main shareholders of EADS, has signaled it would like to sell its shareholding sooner, rather than later, according to industry sources. Daimler, like the French government, holds 15%. Stakes of 7.5% each are controlled by the Lagardère Group and a consortium of mainly German banks. The Spanish state holds 5.4%.
Qatar Airways is launching a second daily service to Singapore. The service will start as a three-times-weekly flight in May and go up to daily in October. The airline will then have a morning and evening departure to Singapore and an evening and late-night departure from Singapore. Qatar Airways says the service connects with its European network. Like the current daily flight, the additional services are operated with Boeing 777s.
Maldivian startup Villa Air plans to launch operations with its first two ATR 42-500s in April. The aircraft will be used initially for services from Malé’s international airport to island resorts, including a new airport to be opened in April and owned by the Villa group. The new facility is close to Villa’s Sun Island and Holiday Island resorts, which currently depend on sea plane and boat connections that don’t have night-time departures.
