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.
Austrian Airlines Group traffic in June rose in line with capacity expansion after the airline suffered from hefty load factor declines earlier this year. The airline's traffic was up 8.8% on 8.7% more capacity. Austrian said, however, that high fuel prices and lower yields continue to depress earnings. Austrian warned earlier that it would post a loss for the full year, supplanting forecasts that it would be profitable. -JF
Lufthansa plans to significantly boost its capacity on routes from Germany to the Ukraine, adding services and destinations and complicating life for Star Alliance partner Austrian Airlines. The airline is launching six-times weekly service from Frankfurt to Dnjepropetrovsk and from Munich to Donezk. It is also adding six weekly flights from Dusseldorf to Kiev before the end of August. The new Munich service will be launched in September and the Frankfurt service will launch in October.
Airbus Executive VP-Operations Gerard Blanc is leaving the company after more than 30 years, a move that could be a huge loss for the airframer at a crucial time as it tries to catch up on delays in the A380 program and ramp up A350 development. Blanc reportedly wrote a memo to staff explaining his departure. Airbus did not comment.
