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.
Passenger numbers at Vienna Aairport grew strongly in May, with airport operator Flughafen Wien reporting that a total of 1.3 million passengers used the airport, a 24.7% increase from last year. The share of connecting passengers was 34% in May. Traffic improved 20.1% in the first five months of the year.
Lufthansa has raised EUR752 million ($900 million) in a rights offer completed late Wednesday. The proceeds will be used for long-haul route expansion and the planned acquisition of the Airbus A380 and set-up of supporting infrastructure. The subscription rate was 99.82%.
Iberia reported a 15% rise in passenger numbers for May, and CEO Angel Mullor expects the developments to continue into June. "From what we have seen these days, it's going to be better than May," Mullor said. Despite the pick-up in demand, the Iberia CEO expects yields to continue their decline in the next few months. The Spanish carrier started three times weekly services from Madrid to Lagos, Nigeria using Boeing 757-200s. -JF
