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 Star Alliance is preparing a new corporate governance scheme that will prepare the group for a massive increase in members. The airline group has launched an “alliance of the 50s” initiative that is supposed to enable Star to increase the number of airline members from the current 21 to up to 50. The scheme is to be through the final stages of negotiations in June, and is understood to be presented in Kuala Lumpur on the sidelines of the IATA World Air Transport Summit.
Robert Wall (Paris), Jens Flottau (Frankfurt, Germany)
Airbus is giving itself until early next year to set A380 production targets for 2010, after airline deferrals have already forced the aircraft maker to curtail output for this year and acknowledge that a slowdown next year is coming.
Airbus has received just 11 net orders so far this year; it has received 30 new orders, but cancellations came in for another 19. The cancellations are for 14 aircraft in the A320 family of jets, and five are for the original version of the A350. The latter have been converted into new firm orders for five A350XWB-800s by India’s Kingfisher Airlines.
