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.
Air France-KLM has told Airbus that it does not want to take delivery of its first A380s in the fall of 2007, but rather delay the introduction into service by another six months. Air France was initially scheduled to take delivery of the first A380 of 10 ordered in April 2007, but due to the delay in production ramp-up and the certification process, the airline -- like the other launch customers -- incurred a delay of about six months.
Boeing and Airbus could break new order records before year-end, but the absence of airline commitments was also remarkable at last week's Dubai air show, illustrating airline concerns about readiness of proposed technological innovations. One record that could fall is for total order intake for aircraft seating more than 100; that was set in 1989 at 1,631 aircraft. Airbus President/CEO Gustav Humbert sees a slight chance his company and rival Boeing could combine to surpass that number. "This has been a good year for the industry at large," he notes.
Airbus is starting to talk to airlines about converting A380 options to firm orders and is weighing whether to build A350s at a faster rate than first planned. New Airbus President/CEO Gustav Humbert says that fielding of the mega-transport next year will likely spur companies that have options to start turning them into firm orders. Airbus has about 50 options along with 149 firm orders for the A380, and 10 commitments from UPS are likely to be firmed up soon.
