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.
LTU International Airlines cleared the final hurdle in its long-standing negotiations with labor unions, after its flight attendants agreed to a new wage agreement that expires only at the end of 2008. Flight attendants will get a 3% pay increase retroactive from Jan. 1 and another 2% increase next July. The terms are identical to a new contract approved by the airline's pilots earlier this month. "With these agreements, we have set good conditions for a fast integration of LTU into the Air Berlin group," CEO Juergen Marbach said in a statement.
Juergen Raps, Lufthansa's chief pilot, was appointed to succeed Carl Siegel as executive VP-operations on Sept. 1. Siegel has been heading operations for 10 years but said he would like to focus on flying Airbus A330s and A340s before he retires next year. Raps is among the first four commercial pilots worldwide to get an A380 type rating. [email protected]
Virgin Atlantic majority shareholder Richard Branson may take the airline public, a Virgin Atlantic spokesman said yesterday. Before launching an initial public offering, he could buy back a 49% stake held by Singapore Airlines. SIA-CEO Chew Choon Seng said last month his company was exploring options on what to do with its Virgin Atlantic stake (DAILY, Aug. 3).
