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.
Data from Air France flight 447’s automatic ACARS message indicate the pilots may not have had access to the correct speed information during the final minutes of the flight. The list of fault messages sent to Air France’s operations headquarters in Paris includes a sequence of notes that hints at the three Air Data Inertial Reference Unit (ADIRU) computers to show diverging information. ADIRU compiles data delivered by the pitot tubes and processes it to the aircraft’s other computers.
Air Berlin on Thursday concluded a capital increase for institutional investors that added €23 million to the company’s base capital. The move was announced only in the morning. A total of 6.6 million shares were sold at a price of €3.50. The amount is well below its current trading value, which dropped by 7.6% to €3.70 throughout the day.
Christoph Franz, Lufthansa’s new deputy CEO, paints a bleak picture of the economic outlook for the airline and the industry. “What is causing us particular concern at present is not just the decline in passenge volume,” he told Lufthans’s internal newspaper, Lufthanseat. “We are seeing a structural shift from the front rows to the back rows of our aircraft. Even if we see a return to an economic upswing, we know from experience that we will not attain our previous level. That is why short-term measures to overcome the current crisis are not sufficient.”
