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.
Swiss International Air Lines and Swiss travel agencies have reached an agreement over the airline's World Wide Web fares after a long-standing dispute. The agreement compels Swiss to offer the same fares in travel agencies as on the Web. The deal does not apply to the two lowest booking classes that Swiss introduced to better compete with low-fare airlines. In return, travel agencies agreed to give the airline preferred partner status and help strengthen its competitive position in Switzerland. -JF
SAS Group's traffic continued its downward trend in 2003 following drop-offs in 2001 and 2002. The airline group's traffic was 1.6% lower than in the previous year, but SAS increased capacity 1.5%. The load factor was two percentage points lower at 63.5%. Actual passenger numbers were down even more significantly -- 6.7% -- than overall traffic, as demand on intra-Scandinavian routes fell 13.7%. In December, overall traffic was down 0.3% on 0.1% less capacity. For the January-November period, yields declined 12%.
European Union Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio called for more transparency in the way member countries handle airline safety, referring to the crash of a Flash Airlines Boeing 737-300 in Egypt earlier this month. "The most rigorous member state's attitude should become the attitude and action of the whole EU," she said.
