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.
The lure of the 100-seat market has attracted the interest of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which has been working with Fuji and Kawasaki on a 30-50-seat regional jet, although market conditions are causing second thoughts. And the highly competitive 80-100-seat segment is also tight, as indicated by Brazilian manufacturer Embraer in its latest financial report.
Finnair wants to stress its Asian growth strategy in the next few years to take advantage of a profitable market niche it has developed. Finnair CEO Keijo Suila told The DAILY that the airline will start three weekly services from Helsinki to Guangzhou, China, operated by Boeing MD-11s. The airline also wants to increase frequencies on its existing routes to Tokyo and Bangkok. "Demand from and to Asia grows faster than the rest of our network," Suila noted.
British low-fare regional carrier FlyBE managed to make a GBP14 million (US$25.9 million) profit in the first six months, up from a GBP3.1 million loss last year, despite a steep rise in fuel costs. FlyBE is the relaunched version of former regional carrier British European.
