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 and Vienna Airport this week opened a hub control center, a joint office intended to streamline operations and reduce delays. The airline says the percentage of on-time departures was down at 77% in 2004 from 84% in 2003. CEO Vagn Soerensen is concerned Austrian may no longer be able to guarantee its 25-minute minimum connecting time if delays continue to build up. Austrian hopes the on-time rate can be improved to 83% next year and later to 87%.
U.S. airline CEOs last week agreed at the Phoenix Aviation Conference that consolidation in the U.S. industry will happen and that at least one or two of the majors will disappear over time. "We will have airlines go out of business if things don't change, and I'm not hopeful of that [change]," JetBlue CEO David Neeleman said.
Airbus told launch customer Singapore Airlines that it will receive its first Airbus A380 in the second half of 2006, an Airbus spokesman said yesterday, sevaral months later than planned. Airbus previously wanted to deliver the first aircraft before the end of the second quarter. According to the company, no exact date has been agreed on with SIA. The airline will need several more weeks after the delivery before starting revenue services with the aircraft.
