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.
Ryanair will base an additional four aircraft and add 17 new routes at Girona Airport near Barcelona next year, growing the base into one of the airline's largest operations outside the U.K. New routes to be started in May include services from Girona to Gothenburg, Sweden; Marrakech, Morocco, and Bologna, Italy. Ryanair will also increase frequencies on existing routes to Paris, Milan and Rome, which are now offered three times daily. -JF
Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi International airport opened yesterday with some initial hiccups, but without huge disruptions. Airports of Thailand (AOT) went ahead with the airport opening in spite of the military coup earlier this month. The move was performed without visible signs of heightened security.
Lufthansa and Aeroflot are poised to make widebody fleet purchases, after having first decided to take action to bolster their short-haul capability. Lufthansa started by making a decision on how to replace its 62 aging Boeing 737 Classics--it bought five Airbus A319s, 10 A320s and 15 A321s and secured another 30 options for A320 family aircraft. The choice is no surprise, as Lufthansa already operates a large A320 fleet. Last week's order also includes five A330s to complement 10 now in service.
