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.
KLM managed to improve its load factor by three percentage points to 77.6% in December, as the airline reduced capacity by 11%. Demand fell 7% in the period, still one of the worst performances among European airlines for the month. North Atlantic traffic was down 16% and demand to Asia was down 7%. Europe was relatively stable at 1%. KLM and Air France are awaiting European Commission approval for their tie-up into Air France-KLM, potentially the largest airline group in the world (DAILY, Oct. 1, 17, 2003). -JF
Reacting to the spectacular emergency landing of one of its Fokker 70s earlier this week, Austrian has grounded its entire Fokker 70 fleet as a precautionary measure. All eight remaining aircraft were flown to Vienna Airport on Wednesday evening and remain grounded for detailed inspections of their engines, deicing and monitoring systems, as well as the ice impact trays.
Star Alliance partners Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines are ending their cooperation across the North Atlantic, and Lufthansa will remove its code from the daily service from Frankfurt to New York Kennedy. An airline spokesperson said the move was a routine measure. However, according to industry sources, the decision was due to tensions within Star.
