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.
Star Alliance appears close to signing up its first members in China, a move that would massively bolster its presence in one of the air transport industry's key growth markets.
Lufthansa saw only small traffic growth in the first quarter, with demand up 1.0% from last year. The airline offered 3.1% more capacity, the load factor consequently dropped 1.5 percentage points to 71.8%. The slowdown was caused mainly by a 4.7% drop in demand on routes to North and South America, while European traffic -- like Asia/Pacific -- was up 5.8%. The airline pointed out that with the Easter holidays in April, the figures are not completely comparable to last year. -JF
Ryanair yesterday announced nine new routes from its Frankfurt/Hahn base. The airline plans to launch service to Fez and Marrakech in Morocco, Grenada and Murcia in Spain, Kaunas in Lithuania, Wroclaw and Krakow in Poland, as well as to Trieste and Verona in Italy. The airline will also increase frequencies to London and Oslo. The move is part of a previously announced plan to grow Hahn by about 1 million passengers annually and eventually base 18 aircraft at the airport. To cater to the expansion, Ryanair will base two more Boeing 737-800s at Hahn. -JF
