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 is slowly revising downward its expectations for the financial year 2009. CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber said at the annual shareholder meeting in Cologne that the profit will be significantly below last year’s level, but the company still targets a profit for the year. In March, Lufthansa forecast an operating result below that of 2008 without specifying this further.
Lufthansa Cargo plans to ground two more MD-11s in October owing to the dramatic drop in demand in the air freight business, while one of its nearest competitors, Cargolux, has yet to shrink its fleet despite a $61-million net loss for 2008. The German line has idled four MD-11s already, meaning the additional capacity pull will effectively put one-third of the airline’s fleet on the ground. Lufthansa Cargo saw demand drop 20% in the first quarter and has not noticed any signs of improvement yet.
European airlines, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and pilot unions are trying to sort out a bitter dispute over new recommendations on pilot and cabin crew duty times that carriers claim would hinder their ability to fly long-haul routes.
