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.
Andre Viljoen, the CEO of South African Airways (SAA), resigned this week without disclosing reasons. The resignation is understood to be connected to huge losses incurred by the airline's currency hedging policy, but SAA declined to comment. Viljoen will leave the airline by the end of August, and his deputy, Oyama Mabandla, will replace Viljoen on an interim basis beginning on Sept. 1.
Boeing remains confident of logging close to 200 orders for the 7E7 by the end of the year and is casting a wide net with the latest orders for 10 planes from two European charter carriers. Italy's Blue Panorama ordered four planes that are expected to replace its current fleet of three 767-300ERs, and First Choice (previously Air 2000) based in the U.K. plans to fly six planes. Neither airline has named an engine supplier. Deliveries are set to start in 2009.
Ryanair in June carried 24% more passengers than last year and improved its load factor from 79 to 87%. During the past 12 months, Ryanair filled 84% of its seats. Also, the company sold 97% of its tickets over the Web. A year ago, 94% of its customers chose the web site for booking. For the January-March period, Ryanair recorded a quarterly loss, the first since it went public in 1997. The airline expects yields to continue their rapid decline for the remainder of the year as it adds capacity and deploys its new fleet of Boeing 737-800s. -JF
