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.
More and more airlines are giving ultra-long-haul flights another try as two fundamentals have shifted dramatically: Fuel prices are close to where they were when the first experiment on ultra-long-haul flying started 12 years ago; and, possibly more important, next-generation widebodies such as the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350 make the flights more commercially viable.
The mental health of pilots and the privacy of their records and consultations with doctors is back in the news following the report by French air safety investigators on the crash of a Germanwings A320 in the Alps last year. Jim Asker, Jens Flottau and John Croft discuss the issues and what might be done to prevent such tragedies.
Lufthansa Group is forecasting only a modest profit improvement in 2016 even though the flagship airline will benefit greatly from much lower fuel costs.
