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.
Lufthansa's aviation group strategy is becoming increasingly questionable, as the company was forced to make huge write-downs for its unprofitable LSG SkyChefs subsidiary, yesterday posting a EUR980 million (US$1.24 billion) 2003 loss. The airline unexpectedly announced preliminary financial figures for the year and also said it wants to sell Chef Solutions, one part of LSG SkyChefs. JP Morgan airline analyst Chris Avery attributed EUR600 million (US$749 million) of the write-downs to Chef Solutions.
Finnair is confident it can make a profit in 2004 despite disappointing results last year, including a EUR21.7 million loss (US$27.5 million) that eclipsed a EUR54.4 million profit a year earlier. Finnair's turnover decreased 6.4% to EUR1.55 billion. The airline attributed the decline to lower average fares and a drop in long-haul travel to Asia, a key market for the carrier. However, demand in the first quarter of 2004 was up sharply, the company stated.
Swiss International Air Lines managed to reduce its loss in 2003 from last year's result, but the CHF687 million (US$554 million) net loss will keep the airline deeply in the red. Revenues decreased from CHF4.4 billion last year to CHF4.1 billion (US$3.3 billion), as a result of the planned fleet and network downscaling. Restructuring costs were CHF205 million for the year. The company had cash reserves totaling CHF503 million (US$406 million).
