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.
Airbus is scrapping its original plans for the new A350 and plans to relaunch the program as a completely new range of aircraft that moves further into Boeing 777's market territory. The company's new President and CEO Christian Streiff stopped short of an outright industrial launch yesterday at the Farnborough Air Show, but he said the launch was scheduled to take place in the first days of October, with development work continuing at the same speed until then.
Beirut Airport remains closed after the Israeli Air Force attacked the facility as part of military operations in Lebanon. Officials said it is too early to assess the damage and whether it would take days or weeks to repair the runway. Israel claims the airport is used for smuggling weapons, a charge the airport authority denies.
Lufthansa shares dropped by 3.6% yesterday after the company reported a significant drop in transatlantic traffic. Transatlantic demand fell 5.8% and capacity 6.5%. By contrast, traffic in Europe grew 5.4% as the airline benefited from the soccer World Cup in Germany and rising demand for its low-fare offerings. Systemwide capacity was down 0.7%, with demand declining 0.5%. The overall load factor was 78%, up 0.2 percentage points. -JF
