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.
Lufthansa, Air France and Emirates introduced three new routes for their Airbus A380s on Wednesday. Air France is now offering three weekly A380 flights from Paris to Tokyo. It has four A380s and uses them on Paris-New York, Paris-Johannesburg and now in the Paris-Tokyo market. Lufthansa has put the aircraft in the Frankfurt-Beijing market. It has taken delivery of three A380s so far and is using them for a daily Tokyo roundtrip plus three weekly Beijing flights.
Germany’s federal government approved the proposed air passenger duty at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. In a surprise move, the duty will be charged with immediate effect for all flights departing on or after Jan. 1, 2011, to keep passengers from buying large quantities of tickets now without the tax for travel in 2011.
Air Berlin and its pilots on Wednesday agreed on a new contract regulating work rules and removing the threat of a pilot strike in the coming weeks. According to the airline, work conditions at Air Berlin will slowly be aligned with the more favorable terms of long-haul leisure subsidiary LTU. That process is to be completed in 2013. At LTU, cockpit crews will be increased on particularly lengthy long-haul sectors from the summer of 2011.
